Knox
- Pronunciation
- [Knox]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From The Hills
- Origin
- English
About the Name Knox
Knox is a Scottish surname descending from the Gaelic cnoc meaning "round hill" or "hillock." The surname identified medieval Scottish families originating from places with this geographical feature. The most consequential historical bearer is John Knox (c. 1514–1572), the Scottish Protestant Reformation leader and theologian who founded the Church of Scotland (the Presbyterian church) and whose 1558 polemic The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women attacked female monarchs (particularly Mary, Queen of Scots).
The name's transition from Scottish surname to American first name is essentially a 21st-century phenomenon, accelerated by celebrity adoption. The single most influential celebrity bearer is Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt (born 2008, son of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). The 2008 Jolie-Pitt twin announcement (Knox and his sister Vivienne) gave the name an unusual surge — SSA records show Knox climbing from outside the US top 1000 in 2007 to the top 300 by 2010 within three years.
Knox's American climb has continued: the name reached the US top 100 boys' rank by 2018 and the top 100 since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the surname-style sophistication, the strong masculine sound with the distinctive X ending, and the in-built Scottish-Reformation register. One short syllable, hard consonants, and tonal versatility from rugged-classical to contemporary preppy. The name reads as decisively masculine, modern, and edgy without being trendy. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Knoxy and the rare K each occasionally appear. There are no significant international variants since the name's first-name use is essentially American and recent. The original Scottish surname Knox remains in use in Scottish-American naming.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Knox
US Popularity History (2009–2025)
Annual US births named Knox by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2022 with 1,900 boys named Knox (boy rank #199 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #196 for boys (1,836 US births). That's 3 places above its earlier 2022 peak — the name is more popular now than it has ever been.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Knox Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Knox the strongest states are South Dakota, Nebraska, Utah.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Dakota | #83 | 143 |
| 2 | Nebraska | #85 | 278 |
| 3 | Utah | #97 | 467 |
| 4 | Iowa | #105 | 350 |
| 5 | Wyoming | #106 | 22 |
| 6 | Kentucky | #117 | 426 |
| 7 | North Dakota | #122 | 106 |
| 8 | Arkansas | #126 | 276 |
| 9 | Tennessee | #127 | 654 |
| 10 | Kansas | #130 | 288 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #615 | 92 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | #462 | 99 |
| 3 | New York | #459 | 342 |
| 4 | California | #417 | 761 |
| 5 | Connecticut | #409 | 35 |
| 6 | Nevada | #357 | 85 |
| 7 | Maryland | #355 | 153 |
| 8 | New Mexico | #329 | 27 |
| 9 | Washington | #310 | 249 |
| 10 | Florida | #285 | 635 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Knox in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Knox?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Knox to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Knox against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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