Orion

What Orion means

Possibly “heaven's light”

From Middle English Orioun, from Latin Ōrīōn, from Ancient Greek Ὠρίων (Ōríōn), speculatively from Akkadian 𒌋𒊒𒀭𒈾 (Uru-anna, “heaven's light”), though without any firm evidence.

Source: Wiktionary, “Orion” (revision 93471448), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Orion?

US: Steady: #367 in 2015, #334 now. England & Wales: Rising: up from #601 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 2018, when 1,152 boys got the name (#300 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 1,688 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 2,407 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 3,928 baby boys 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 AK (3.08 per 1,000 boys), OR (2.19 per 1,000 boys), NM (2.0 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

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

US vs UK

Orion is #334 in the US and #370 in England & Wales (2025).

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

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 98.3% of US babies named Orion were boys.

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

• Arian238 US · 40 E&W
• Arion70 US · 11 E&W
• Erian18 US
• Orian15 US
• Arien14 US
• Erion9 US · 4 E&W
• Orien9 US

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 Orion

Boys

• Solomon#422“peace”^*
• Azariah#472“Yah Has Helped”^*
• Sebastian#16“august, venerable, exalted”^*
• Isaias#426Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #426 vs #3,256 in 2025
• Damian#109“to tame”^*
• Pierce#505Form of Peter, meaning “stone, rock”^*

For a sister

• Elaina#267Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #267 vs #951 in 2025
• Cora#113“maiden”^*
• Georgia#99“farmer”^*
• Zara#212“flower”^*
• Phoebe#157“bright”^*
• Lydia#92“the region of Lydia”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Greek, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Orion’s. Rank is US 2025.