Ares
- Pronunciation
- [A-res]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Myth Name (God Of War)
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Ares
Ares descends from the Greek Árēs (Ἄρης), the iconic Greek god of war — son of Zeus and Hera and one of the twelve Olympian gods. The Greek Ares is the deity of bloodthirsty violence and unbridled aggression, in contrast to his sister Athena, who represents strategic warfare. The Greek Ares was identified by the Romans with their war god Mars (after whom the month of March is named).
The name's overwhelming modern American cultural anchor is the iconic DC Comics villain Ares (introduced 1942, the iconic Greek god of war reimagined as Wonder Woman's primary antagonist); the iconic 2005 film God of War video game franchise (where the protagonist Kratos kills Ares); and various contemporary appearances across American popular culture.
The name's transition from mythological figure to American first name accelerated through the 2010s, riding the broader American taste for distinctive Greek-mythological boys' names alongside Atlas, Apollo, Cassius, and Augustus. Ares's American climb is very recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2015 to the US top 300 boys' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. Notable contemporary bearers include American basketball player Ares Christou; the contemporary fictional Ares of various contemporary novels; and the contemporary 2025 American boxing match. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Greek-mythological-warrior-god pedigree, the in-built distinctive war-god classical sophistication, and the compact two-syllable structure with the distinctive A-R-S consonant rhythm. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-American. The name reads as distinctly contemporary American with the strong Greek-mythological cultural register. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Ari (back-end shortening, a popular standalone name on its own — see separate entry on Ari) and the rare Aro each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Ares and Aris have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Árēs (Greek original), Marte (Spanish/Italian, the related Roman Mars name), and the original Greek Árēs.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Ares
US Popularity History (2013–2025)
Annual US births named Ares by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 1,157 boys named Ares (boy rank #290 that year).
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 Ares 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 Ares the strongest states are Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | #231 | 26 |
| 2 | New Mexico | #263 | 67 |
| 3 | Nevada | #338 | 92 |
| 4 | Arizona | #369 | 202 |
| 5 | California | #383 | 902 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #389 | 44 |
| 7 | Nebraska | #394 | 18 |
| 8 | Oregon | #400 | 40 |
| 9 | Kansas | #433 | 42 |
| 10 | Texas | #435 | 759 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | #729 | 22 |
| 2 | Tennessee | #687 | 76 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #664 | 40 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #637 | 29 |
| 5 | Ohio | #629 | 135 |
| 6 | Indiana | #622 | 94 |
| 7 | Michigan | #615 | 120 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #613 | 135 |
| 9 | Georgia | #606 | 123 |
| 10 | New Jersey | #599 | 113 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Ares in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Ares?
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 Ares to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Ares 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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