Forest: Meaning of Baby Name Forest

About the Name Forest

Forest is a serene nature name drawn straight from the English word for woodland, evoking towering trees, quiet trails, and the deep calm of the wild. Historically it described someone who lived or worked in or near the woods, giving it an earthy, grounded character alongside its obvious natural beauty. It is a name that breathes fresh air and open green space. It is a name that brings the hush and grandeur of the woods to mind.

Its appeal lies in that peaceful, rooted imagery and its kinship with the broader family of nature names that have flourished in recent years. Forest feels both rugged and gentle — masculine yet calming, strong yet unhurried — and offers a slightly trimmer, single-r alternative to the more familiar Forrest. For parents drawn to the outdoors and to names with a quiet, contemplative strength, it carries an unmistakable appeal and a touch of timelessness. It feels calm and rooted, a name that carries the quiet of the woods within it.

Forest first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for boys in 2018 and reached its peak in 2022 at rank #703. It remained on the list in 2024, at rank #724, with roughly 2,190 boys given this spelling across its short tracked span — a clear sign of the rising appeal of woodland-inspired names. Recorded variants include Forrest and Foster.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Forest

5,642

English baby names in our dictionary

3,391

English male names

158

6-letter F-names in our dictionary

338

F-male names total

2018–2025

years of US SSA records (8 total)

2,534

total US births named Forest (all years)

US Popularity History (2018–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Forest climbed 52 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#802 in 2020 → #750 in 2025).

Annual US births named Forest by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2022 with 375 boys named Forest (boy rank #703 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #750 for boys (344 US births). That's 47 places below its 2022 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.

Where in the US Is Forest 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 Forest the strongest states are Maine, Oregon, Washington.

Strongest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Maine	#238	21
2	Oregon	#402	95
3	Washington	#443	150
4	Colorado	#490	104
5	Utah	#490	36
6	Wisconsin	#498	74
7	Nevada	#499	22
8	Kentucky	#606	44
9	Oklahoma	#612	26
10	Tennessee	#662	66

Weakest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Illinois	#1,011	25
2	Florida	#949	45
3	North Carolina	#781	64
4	Ohio	#779	70
5	Indiana	#736	41
6	Arizona	#735	23
7	California	#723	343
8	Missouri	#722	50
9	Virginia	#709	58
10	Pennsylvania	#700	50

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Forest in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Forrest	From The Woods	Male	French
Foster	Keeps The Forest Forest-Ranger Surname.	Male	English

Looking for names like Forest?

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.

See all names like Forest →

Compare Forest to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Forest against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Forest vs Liam 239,320 births since 2014

Forest vs Noah 230,181 births since 2014

Forest vs Oliver 164,076 births since 2014

Forest vs William 159,918 births since 2014

Forest vs James 157,850 births since 2014

Forest vs Elijah 153,351 births since 2014

Forest vs Benjamin 147,449 births since 2014

Forest vs Lucas 141,302 births since 2014

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