Curtis
- Pronunciation
- [Cur-tis]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Courteous. See Also Curt
- Origin
- English
About the Name Curtis
Curtis is an English surname that developed from the Old French curteis, meaning "courteous" or "well-bred" — a quality prized in medieval aristocratic culture, where polished manners were considered a mark of noble birth. The name entered English use as a surname during the Norman period and gradually became adopted as a given name, following the common pattern by which occupational or character-based surnames migrated into the first-name pool. Its two-syllable rhythm and strong final consonant give it a grounded, no-nonsense quality.
Among notable bearers is Curtis LeMay (1906–1990), a United States Air Force general whose career became synonymous with strategic bombing doctrine in the twentieth century, including the direction of the firebombing campaign against Japanese cities — a figure whose name carries the full weight of American mid-century military history.
Curtis first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1929 and reached its peak of #72 in 1963, accumulating a substantial total of more than 182,000 top-1000 births across its long tracked span. It has remained continuously present in the top-1000 through 2024, most recently recorded at rank #927 with 249 births — a gradual but steady fade from its mid-century dominance. The recorded variant is Curcio, an Italianate form that reflects the name's broader Romance-language roots.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Curtis
US Popularity History (1929–2025)
Annual US births named Curtis by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1962 with 5,570 boys named Curtis (boy rank #73 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #985 for boys (232 US births). That's 912 places below its 1962 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 Curtis 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 Curtis the strongest states are Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #400 | 48 |
| 2 | Kentucky | #458 | 45 |
| 3 | Arkansas | #476 | 33 |
| 4 | Iowa | #481 | 20 |
| 5 | Alabama | #497 | 77 |
| 6 | Oregon | #509 | 21 |
| 7 | Louisiana | #532 | 79 |
| 8 | Virginia | #564 | 112 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #574 | 58 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | #579 | 37 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #907 | 58 |
| 2 | Texas | #870 | 191 |
| 3 | California | #832 | 227 |
| 4 | Colorado | #801 | 21 |
| 5 | Arizona | #787 | 41 |
| 6 | New Jersey | #785 | 30 |
| 7 | Washington | #741 | 70 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | #716 | 94 |
| 9 | Illinois | #708 | 119 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #685 | 42 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Curtis in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curcio | Courteous | Male | French |
Famous People Named Curtis
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Curtis.
- Curtis Lemay was one of the greatest generals in the United States Air Force.
Looking for names like Curtis?
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 Curtis to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Curtis against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).