Forrest: Meaning of Baby Name Forrest

About the Name Forrest

Forrest descends from the Old French forest, ultimately from the Late Latin forestis meaning "woodland" or "forest" — referring to medieval European royal hunting forests. The name first appears as an English surname referring to those who lived near or worked in such forests.

The name's overwhelming modern American cultural anchor is the title character of Robert Zemeckis's 1994 film Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks, who won the Best Actor Oscar) — Forrest Gump is the iconic American simpleton-savant whose journey through 20th-century American history (the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Apple computer founding, etc.) made him one of the foundational figures of late-20th-century American cinema.

Other notable bearers include the iconic Confederate Civil War general Nathan Bedford Forrest (using Forrest as a surname, 1821–1877, the controversial Confederate general and post-war Ku Klux Klan leader); American basketball player Forrest Walker; and the contemporary American actor Forrest Whitaker (using the alternate Forest spelling). Forrest's American climb peaked in the late 1990s following the Forrest Gump film, reaching the US top 300 boys' rank from 1995 through 2010 and remaining in steady use since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the in-built nature/forest-woodland register, the strong Forrest Gump cultural anchor, and the popular two-syllable -est ending. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-American. The name reads as both classical-Anglo-Norman and contemporary American. Common nicknames Frosty, Rest, and the rare Forry each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Forrest and Forest have their own SSA tracking. International forms include the original Old French forest.

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

Quick Facts About Forrest

1,414

French baby names in our dictionary

571

French male names

98

7-letter F-names in our dictionary

338

F-male names total

2000–2025

years of US SSA records (17 total)

8,343

total US births named Forrest (all years)

US Popularity History (2000–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Forrest climbed 88 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#462 in 2020 → #374 in 2025).

Annual US births named Forrest by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 850 boys named Forrest (boy rank #374 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.

Where in the US Is Forrest 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 Forrest the strongest states are Vermont, Montana, Maine.

Strongest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Vermont	#107	17
2	Montana	#175	22
3	Maine	#177	39
4	New Hampshire	#241	15
5	West Virginia	#282	28
6	Oregon	#298	134
7	Washington	#309	242
8	Idaho	#311	69
9	Missouri	#348	179
10	Colorado	#349	175

Weakest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	New York	#742	132
2	Maryland	#692	54
3	Florida	#650	221
4	Texas	#637	403
5	Louisiana	#575	70
6	Illinois	#574	168
7	Pennsylvania	#553	160
8	California	#541	527
9	Arizona	#513	130
10	Georgia	#512	179

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

Variant Forms

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

Looking for names like Forrest?

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Compare Forrest to Other Popular Names

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

Forrest vs Liam 239,320 births since 2014

Forrest vs Noah 230,181 births since 2014

Forrest vs Oliver 164,076 births since 2014

Forrest vs William 159,918 births since 2014

Forrest vs James 157,850 births since 2014

Forrest vs Elijah 153,351 births since 2014

Forrest vs Benjamin 147,449 births since 2014

Forrest vs Lucas 141,302 births since 2014

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