About FastNames

FastNames started with a simple frustration: look up what a name means and you'll find five sites giving five different answers, none of them saying where the answer came from. We wanted one place that shows its work.

So that's the idea. It's free, there's nothing to sign up for, and every page tells you where its information comes from.

Where the numbers come from

The popularity charts for first names use the Social Security Administration's baby name records, which go all the way back to 1880 and break down by state. One catch: Social Security doesn't publish a name in a year when fewer than five boys or five girls got it, so very rare names can look rarer than they really are.

Last names come from the U.S. Census Bureau's surname counts. The famous people on each page come from Wikidata, a free, open database, and we double-check them before they go up.

How we work out meanings

Meanings and origins come from published name dictionaries and other references, and we cite them on the page. Before anything is published, it gets a second check against those sources. And if a meaning everyone repeats turns out to be made up (it happens more than you'd think), we'll say so instead of passing it along.

Spot a mistake?

We'd really like to hear about it. Send us a note and we'll take a look.