Meaning & origin
A reliable meaning for South isn’t established in our sources yet. Rather than guess, we show what is recorded: how the name is used, how often, and the names it’s connected to.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1927. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
South through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 11
- 11 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2025
- 6 babies
- 2025
- 6
- #11,802 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 6 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 11,802 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 140 as a first name in 2020; 10,580 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.
South’s family of names
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named South
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love South, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Saint
“a holy man”
98% boys · 2% girls
Soren
“one who is strict; stern”
94% boys · 6% girls
Sonny
“our son”
93% boys · 7% girls
Truett
Truett is a masculine given name.
98% boys · 2% girls
Samson
“sun man”
>99% boys
Sylas
“a woodland dweller”
99% boys · 1% girls
Cyrus
“a king”
99% boys · 1% girls
Ozzy
“having great strength” · “a spear of the gods”
89% boys · 11% girls