Norman
- Pronunciation
- [Nor-man]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From The North
- Origin
- French
About the Name Norman
Norman is a name of French origin meaning "from the north" — derived from the Old French Normand, the term for the Norsemen who settled in northern France in the 10th century and gave Normandy its name. The Normans carried the name to England after the Conquest of 1066, and it settled into the English-speaking name pool as a surname before eventually becoming a given name. Its association with the powerful Norman nobility of medieval England gave it an aristocratic pedigree that sustained it through the Victorian era and into the 20th century.
Several distinguished figures bear the name in the naming record. Painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell (born 1894) is best known for the cover paintings he produced for The Saturday Evening Post over nearly five decades, images that came to represent a particular vision of American life. Canadian surgeon and activist Norman Bethune was a thoracic surgeon, medical innovator, and political activist whose service with Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War and with Chinese Communist troops in the Second Sino-Japanese War made him an international figure. Journalist and peace advocate Norman Cousins was editor of the Saturday Review for thirty-five years, transforming a literary weekly into one of the most widely read general-interest magazines of its era. Novelist Norman Mailer won the Pulitzer Prize twice and helped shape the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas contested every election from 1928 through 1948, making him one of the most persistent third-party political figures in American history.
Norman appears in the US Social Security top-1000 from 1886 and peaked in 1931 at rank #36, accumulating over 190,000 top-1000 births. It left the top-1000 after 2005, when it appeared at #906. Recorded variants include Norm and Normie.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Norman
US Popularity History (1886–2005)
Annual US births named Norman by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1928 with 5,590 boys named Norman (boy rank #39 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2005, ranked #906 for boys (197 US births). That's 867 places below its 1928 peak.
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 Norman 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 Norman the strongest states are Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky | #639 | 24 |
| 2 | Michigan | #665 | 58 |
| 3 | Wisconsin | #675 | 66 |
| 4 | Minnesota | #687 | 47 |
| 5 | Missouri | #735 | 36 |
| 6 | Ohio | #791 | 89 |
| 7 | Washington | #794 | 23 |
| 8 | Indiana | #823 | 20 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | #827 | 70 |
| 10 | Colorado | #897 | 15 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado | #897 | 15 |
| 2 | Pennsylvania | #827 | 70 |
| 3 | Indiana | #823 | 20 |
| 4 | Washington | #794 | 23 |
| 5 | Ohio | #791 | 89 |
| 6 | Missouri | #735 | 36 |
| 7 | Minnesota | #687 | 47 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | #675 | 66 |
| 9 | Michigan | #665 | 58 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #639 | 24 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Norman in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norm | From The North | Male | French |
Famous People Named Norman
5 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Norman.
- Norman Bethune was a great Canadian physician and humanitarian, who is still remembered for his services during Spanish Civil War.
- Norman Cousins was an American political journalist and author.
- Norman Mailer was an American novelist, journalist and screen writer.
- Norman Rockwell — Painter (1894)
- Norman Thomas was the socialist, political activist and the American Presbyterian minister who became one of the major figures of American society through his anti-war preaching and peace initiatives.
Looking for names like Norman?
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 Norman to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Norman 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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