Finlay
Finlay is given to both girls and boys: 8 girls and 50 boys were given it in 2025 (#11,254 among girls’ names and #2,614 among boys’, #5,102 among all names counting both); 1,306 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,290 Americans named Finlay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Finlay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Finlay mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Finlay is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “fair warrior/hero” (Fionnlagh).
Anglicized from Scottish Gaelic Fionnlagh (“fair warrior/hero”).
/ˈfɪnli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Finlay?
#2,614 among boys’ names, 2025
Finlay fell from #2,154 in 2015 to #2,614 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 33.4 to 29.3 per million.
75 babies in 2017, the peak
Finlay peaked in 2017, when 75 babies were given it (56 boys, #2,326 among boys’ names). The 58 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 77% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,254 | 50 | #2,614 |
| 2024 | under 5 | 55 | #2,484 | |
| 2023 | 5 | #15,966 | 50 | #2,624 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,551 | 48 | #2,729 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,554 | 54 | #2,472 |
| 2020 | 9 | #10,536 | 50 | #2,561 |
| 2019 | 7 | #12,888 | 38 | #3,114 |
| 2018 | 8 | #11,769 | 55 | #2,398 |
| 2017 | 19 | #6,359 | 56 | #2,326 |
| 2016 | 18 | #6,736 | 56 | #2,346 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 10 | #10,371 | 64 | #2,154 |
| 2014 | 8 | #12,292 | 34 | #3,251 |
| 2013 | 18 | #6,828 | 41 | #2,816 |
| 2012 | 14 | #8,354 | 37 | #3,070 |
| 2011 | 10 | #10,636 | 35 | #3,191 |
| 2010 | 13 | #8,882 | 30 | #3,560 |
| 2009 | 5 | #18,220 | 50 | #2,541 |
| 2008 | 8 | #12,987 | 41 | #2,900 |
| 2007 | 9 | #11,944 | 44 | #2,733 |
| 2006 | 7 | #14,058 | 50 | #2,458 |
| 2005 | 6 | #15,113 | 42 | #2,628 |
| 2004 | 5 | #16,961 | 26 | #3,559 |
| 2003 | under 5 | 18 | #4,483 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 17 | #4,561 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 21 | #3,881 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 20 | #3,963 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 7 | #8,131 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 7 | #7,842 | |
| 1918 | under 5 | 6 | #3,885 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Finlay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,306 Americans recorded as Finlay, 16% are girls and 84% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Finlay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Finlay, and how old are they?
1,290 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,306 Americans ever recorded as Finlay. The median Finlay alive today is 11 years old; half are between 6 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 1,106 people named Finlay (188 women and girls, 918 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 961 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 515 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 772 |
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 Finlay born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7 | #2,057 | 0.7× |
| New York | 6 | #1,632 | 0.5× |
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 Finlay 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 52,637 babies since 1880, Finlay is the third most given (2.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 58 of their 2,332 babies (2.5%), again the third 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 Finlay
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 Finlay and names like it
- Compare Finlay and FinleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sFinlay peaked in 2017.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Finlay since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Finlay: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Finlay.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Finlay alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with FMost given first.