Fergus
Fergus is a boy's name that peaked in 2024, when it was the 4,321st most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 5,045th. About 490 Ferguses are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 14.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Fergus
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 568
- Estimated living today
- 490
- Median age today
- 14
- Peak year
- 2024
- Best rank
- 4,321st
- Rank in 2025
- 5,045th
- First recorded
- 1916
How old the living Ferguses are
born that year still alive today
Of the 568 babies given the name since 1916, about 490 are alive — 86 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2011 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Scottish Gaelic
From Irish or Scottish Gaelic Fearghas. The first element may be related to modern fìor (“true”) or fear (“man”) (cf. Fearchar). The second element has been understood to mean 'choice' (cf. Angus). Thus the name means either "most chosen one" or "chosen man".
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Ferguss
- Fergus Mór (500–501)legendary king
- Fergus Suter (1857–1916)Scottish footballer
- Fergus Kavanagh (born 1985)field hockey player
- Fergus Anderson (1909–1956)British racing driver
- Fergus Hume (1859–1932)British writer
People named Fergus with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Fergus is most common
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2024
The most popular boys’ names the year Fergus peaked:
Fergus elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales boys | Fergus | 2,532 | 244th |
| Ireland boys | Fergus | 1,794 | 77th |
| Scotland boys | Fergus | 1,683 | 86th |
| Northern Ireland boys | Fergus | 76 | 199th |
| France boys | Fergus | 55 | 5,259th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Fergus among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Fergus | 6 | 8 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Related names
Fergus against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.