Norman

From an old Germanic byname meaning “northman,” referring to a Scandinavian, Norman was used in England before the Norman Conquest first as a nickname for Scandinavian settlers and later as a given name. The Normans were Vikings who settled on the coast of France in the region that became Normandy. After the Conquest the name became more common, but it died out around the 14th century and was revived in the 19th century, perhaps partly because of a character of this name in C. M. Yonge’s 1856 novel The Daisy Chain. Notable bearers include the American painter Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) and the American author Norman Mailer (1923–2007).

Norman moved from #906 to #1000 for boys between 2005 and 2008. Its highest annual birth count came in 1928, with 5,590 births.