Scott

655,952 people in America carry this name — ranked #59 of 923.

Carried mostly by Generation X.

Say it SKAHT

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

S K AA1 T — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 655,952 2020 Census
  • Rank #59 Very common
  • As a surname 421,499 ranked #40 the other way round

What Scott means and where it comes from

Reads literally as “the Scot”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Scott name popularity by year

775,276 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1971, with 31,052 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60s 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1960s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Scott

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Scott Thomas — runs together
  • Scott Steven — same opening
  • Scott Timothy — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Going quiet

Scott has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to Generation X.

Is Scott a boy's or a girl's name?

99.9% men
685 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where in America Scott is thickest on the ground

In Maine the name is given 2.3 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Maine ×2.3
  • Vermont ×2.3
  • North Dakota ×2.2
  • New Hampshire ×2.1
  • Wisconsin ×2.0

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Same syllables and stress as Scott

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 1 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Birth Plan Worksheet

Tick what matters, print it, hand it over. Nothing is stored anywhere.

Open Birth Plan Worksheet on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers