Given name & surname
White
“a white-skinned man”
White is a variant of Whit. One English interpretation is “a white-skinned man.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
White is a variant of Whit. One English interpretation is “a white-skinned man.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
White is a variant of Whit. An origin associated with Whit is English.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
From Middle English White, from Old English *wiht (“bend”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1900. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
White through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 31
- 31 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1914
- 11 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 5 in 1947. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 11 in 1914. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,606 as a first name in 2020; 636,798 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.
White’s family of names
In English usage, White as a surname shares a linguistic root with MCWHITE. White has a related form in Whit. In English usage, White as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the German form WEISS.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
White has relatives in 4 languages.
4 related names in 4 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 3
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named White
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love White, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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