Rune
Rune is given to both girls and boys: 29 girls and 90 boys were given it in 2025 (#4,733 among girls’ names and #1,789 among boys’, #3,158 among all names counting both); 861 Americans have been recorded with it since 2001 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rune by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rune mean?
Wiktionary, Swedish section
Rune is “a male given name”
Masculine form of Runa, also from Old Norse Rúni. First recorded as a given name in Sweden in 1865.
Meaning: Wiktionary, Swedish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rune?
#1,789 among boys’ names, 2025
Rune rose from #4,519 in 2015 to #1,789 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 11.5 to 52.7 per million.
119 babies in 2025, the peak
Rune peaked in 2025, when 119 babies were given it (90 boys, #1,789 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 82 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 29 | #4,733 | 90 | #1,789 |
| 2024 | 20 | #6,116 | 82 | #1,933 |
| 2023 | 19 | #6,360 | 62 | #2,287 |
| 2022 | 17 | #6,933 | 65 | #2,234 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,992 | 35 | #3,348 |
| 2020 | 15 | #7,500 | 34 | #3,329 |
| 2019 | 9 | #11,213 | 29 | #3,780 |
| 2018 | 8 | #12,283 | 37 | #3,156 |
| 2017 | under 5 | 25 | #4,205 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 19 | #5,095 |
Every recorded year (25)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #14,222 | 22 | #4,519 |
| 2014 | 5 | #18,698 | 20 | #4,825 |
| 2013 | 5 | #18,768 | 17 | #5,348 |
| 2012 | under 5 | 18 | #5,200 | |
| 2011 | 5 | #19,012 | 12 | #6,916 |
| 2010 | under 5 | 17 | #5,423 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 16 | #5,755 | |
| 2008 | under 5 | 10 | #8,177 | |
| 2007 | under 5 | 7 | #10,665 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 17 | #5,260 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 15 | #5,519 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 21 | #4,234 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 18 | #4,573 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 17 | #4,661 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 8 | #8,156 |
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 Rune a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 861 Americans recorded as Rune, 17% are girls and 83% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Rune: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rune, and how old are they?
An estimated 854 Americans named Rune and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 2 and 12. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 617 people named Rune (98 women and girls, 519 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 394 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times 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.
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).
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Rune
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 Rune and names like it
- Compare Rune and AzrielBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRune peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rune since 1910.
- Swedish namesWiktionary’s origin for Rune: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Rune.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rune alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.