Given name & surname
Potter
“one who makes pots”
Potter is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “one who makes pots.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “one who makes pots.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
How it developed
From Old French pot, from Vulgar Latin pottum, from Frankish *pott, from Proto-Germanic *puttaz.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2013. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Potter through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 25
- 20 boys · 5 girls
- Most popular year
- 2018
- 10 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 10 in 2018. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 152 as a first name in 2020; 68,997 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Potter’s family of names
Potter has a related form in Pottar. Potter has a related form in Pottir. Potter has a related form in Pottor.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 5
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 5
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Potter
- Potter StewartUS Supreme Court justice from 1958 to 1981 (1915-1985)
- Potter PalmerAmerican businessman (1826–1902)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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