Achilles
Achilles was given to 151 boys in 2025, #1,290 among boys’ names; 3,844 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,660 Americans named Achilles and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 6 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Achilles by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Achilles mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Achilles is “a male given name from Ancient Greek.”
Borrowed from Latin Achillēs, from Ancient Greek Ἀχιλλεύς (Akhilleús).
/əˈkɪliːz/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Achilles?
#1,290 among boys’ names, 2025
Achilles fell from #966 in 2015 to #1,290 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.11 to 0.09 per 1,000.
257 babies in 2018, the peak
Achilles peaked in 2018, when 257 boys were given it, #857 among boys’ names. The 151 births of 2025 are 59% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 151 | #1,290 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 165 | #1,220 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 161 | #1,226 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 189 | #1,121 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 196 | #1,081 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 192 | #1,051 | 0.11 |
| 2019 | 208 | #1,004 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 257 | #857 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 234 | #910 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 227 | #932 | 0.12 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 214 | #966 | 0.11 |
| 2014 | 171 | #1,117 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 142 | #1,244 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 148 | #1,207 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 123 | #1,364 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 110 | #1,481 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 100 | #1,593 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 128 | #1,343 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 111 | #1,445 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 161 | #1,091 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 133 | #1,195 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 32 | #3,073 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 6 | #9,585 | under 0.01 |
| 2002 | 7 | #8,454 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 8 | #7,533 | under 0.01 |
| 2000 | 10 | #6,313 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 6 | #8,711 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 5 | #9,635 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,279 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 5 | #8,869 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 7 | #6,969 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 5 | #8,703 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 8 | #6,126 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 6 | #6,938 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,422 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #6,524 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,006 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #6,256 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #4,940 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 8 | #3,942 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 9 | #3,444 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,442 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,137 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #3,682 | under 0.01 |
| 1940 | 5 | #3,461 | under 0.01 |
| 1937 | 5 | #3,518 | under 0.01 |
| 1932 | 13 | #2,101 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #3,763 | under 0.01 |
| 1929 | 6 | #3,558 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 10 | #2,702 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 11 | #2,567 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 5 | #4,196 | under 0.01 |
| 1924 | 8 | #3,259 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 16 | #2,021 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #4,305 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 9 | #2,986 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,208 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 6 | #3,735 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,368 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 7 | #3,218 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 5 | #3,897 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 10 | #2,458 | 0.01 |
| 1912 | 8 | #1,885 | 0.02 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Achilles a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Achilles has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 63 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Achilles: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Achilles, and how old are they?
3,660 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 3,844 Americans ever recorded as Achilles. The median Achilles alive today is 10 years old; half are between 6 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 2,379 people named Achilles (13 women and girls, 2,366 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,673 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 4 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 35 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 47 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,080 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,490 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Achilles born?
The states with the most babies named Achilles are Texas, California and Florida, with 65% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 19 | #1,135 | 1.1× |
| California | 18 | #1,120 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,056 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 8 | #937 | 0.6× |
| New York | 7 | #1,414 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,094 | 0.7× |
| Indiana | 5 | #949 | 0.3× |
Where Achilles is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Achilles is most over-represented in Arizona: since 1912 it was given 1.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Achilles with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 4,099 babies since 1880, Achilles is the most given (94% of them). In 2025 it was given to 151 of their 161 babies (94%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Achilles
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Achilles and names like it
- Compare Achilles and AchilleusBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAchilles peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Achilles since 1910.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Achilles: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Achilles.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Achilles alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.