Magnus
Magnus is a boy's name that peaked in 2021, when it was the 729th most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 763rd. About 5,700 Magnuses are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 8.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Magnus
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 6,172
- Estimated living today
- 5,700
- Median age today
- 8
- Peak year
- 2021
- Best rank
- 729th
- Rank in 2025
- 763rd
- First recorded
- 1890
How old the living Magnuses are
born that year still alive today
Of the 6,172 babies given the name since 1890, about 5,700 are alive — 93 in every hundred. Roughly 4,600 of them are children and 50 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2017 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 Latin
taken from the title of Carolus Magnus "Charlemagne" by an eleventh century king of Norway, and brought to Scotland in medieval times.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Magnuss
- Magnus Carlsen (born 1990)Norwegian chess player
- Magnús Scheving (born 1964)Icelandic actor and athlete
- Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935)German physician and sexologist
- Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1929–2022)German writer and editor
- Magnus the Good (1024–1047)King of Norway and Denmark
- Magnus Barefoot (1073–1103)King of Norway
- Magnus VI of Norway (1238–1280)King of Norway
- Magnus IV of Sweden (1316–1374)King of Sweden and Norway
People named Magnus with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Magnus is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Magnus is most concentrated in Washington (4.8×), Utah (3.6×), Minnesota (3.0×), Oregon (2.4×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2021
The most popular boys’ names the year Magnus peaked:
Magnus elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norway boys | Magnus | 18,361 | 6th |
| Denmark boys | Magnus | 16,978 | 3rd |
| England and Wales boys | Magnus | 1,888 | 335th |
| Scotland boys | Magnus | 961 | 126th |
| Belgium boys | Magnus | 489 | 188th |
| Switzerland boys | Magnus | 247 | 394th |
| France boys | Magnus | 125 | 1,435th |
| Poland boys | Magnus | 116 birth registrations | 299th |
| Sweden boys | Magnus | 78 | 89th |
| Northern Ireland boys | Magnus | 15 | 312th |
| Ireland boys | Magnus | 3 | 764th |
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.
Magnus: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German boys | Switzerland | Magnus | 226 | 0.018% | 298th |
| French boys | Switzerland | Magnus | 19 | 0.004% | 528th |
| Italian boys | Switzerland | Magnus | 1 | 0.002% | 180th |
| Romansh boys | Switzerland | Magnus | 1 | 0.027% | 13th |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Magnus is most concentrated in Bern, where 0.02% of children were given it – 32 of them.
Magnus: rank by region
In 2025, Magnus was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Magnus | 136 | 43 |
In 2025, Magnus was given 2 times or more in 1 region of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Śląskie | Magnus | 254 | 2 |
In 2025, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Magnus appears in the lists for Province of East Flanders (96th), Province of West Flanders (121st), Province of Antwerp (139th) and Province of Flemish Brabant (155th).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Magnus by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 98 | 176th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Magnus 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 | Magnus | 1,070 | 2,654 |
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
Magnus 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.