Fern

What Fern means

Meaning not yet sourced. Wiktionary has no word-by-word meaning for Fern yet, and we don’t write our own.

Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1918, with 1,341 babies; 186 in 2025 Worked out from the official US and England & Wales counts, not a meaning.

How popular is Fern?

US: Rising: up from #2194 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #500 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1916, when 1,332 girls got the name (#152 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 8,641 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 1,700 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 484 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in OR (1.15 per 1,000 girls), UT (0.59 per 1,000 girls), IA (0.42 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Fern is #1219 in the US and #301 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Fern were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Ferne0 US · 42 E&W

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Fern

Girls

• Millie#73Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #469 in 2015, #73 in 2025
• Ariella#174Form of Ariel, meaning “lion of God”^*
• Esther#119“star”^*
• Nova#46“new”^*
• Catalina#111Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #325 in 2015, #111 in 2025
• Blakely#191Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #191 vs #1,407 in 2025

For a brother

• August#81“month of August”^*
• Arlo#148Editor’s note More popular in England & Wales than the US: #15 vs #148 in 2025
• Felix#175“happy, lucky”^*
• Hayes#162“brushwood”^*
• Weston#55Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #120 in 2015, #55 in 2025
• Brooks#64Variant of Brook, meaning “swamp, marsh”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under where there are enough, topped up with common names whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Fern’s. Place names are only included if they are in the top 300. Rank is US 2025.