Arthur

given name · Latin script

Meaning, in English: From the male personal name Arthur, of Celtic origin and uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘bear’

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Arthur is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • NZNew Zealand≈1 in 844(inferred from the name graph)
  • CNChina≈1 in 886
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 902

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈1,600,000 people, est.

#346 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
592 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 343 (inferred from the name graph)

Brazil

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

ArthurLatin(measured from records)
아서Hangul(measured from records)

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

From the male personal name Arthur, of Celtic origin and uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘bear’.

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.

How Arthur is read(measured from records)

Arthur is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English71%

    From the male personal name Arthur, of Celtic origin and uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘bear’.

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

    From the personal name Arthur < Old English for ‘bear, bearlike’; surname recorded from 16th c., e.g. Thomas Harthawr, Angus, 1511. Gaelic MacArtair in Argyll before 1300.

    as a nameScottish Surnames

    Doubtful origin, perhaps Celtic or Roman; legendary king of the Britons. An Irish Arthur is mentioned by St Adamnan.

    as a nameIrish first names

    from Arthur (L. Artorius); earliest cited in CaernSubsAcct 1293 as dai ab arthur

    as a nameWelsh Surnames

    Cornish; from Old French, ultimately Latin: bear. Masculine form of Ursula.

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • Portuguese9.2%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Arthur in Portuguese.

  • French7.5%

    Possibly Celtic; etymology uncertain, sometimes linked to 'bear'.

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Arthur counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Arthur is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈1,600,000 est.≈1 in 886—Arthur75
BR Brazil—617,8231 in 343618K—11
US United States#148205,8441 in 1.6K205KArthur592
FR France—≈82,000 est.≈1 in 826138KArthur18
GB United Kingdom#167≈73,000 est.≈1 in 9023.4KArthur295
NZ New Zealand#117≈5,800 est.≈1 in 844—Arthur124

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Arthur is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Portuguese given name30 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Philippines, Colombia

    Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

    Also written Árthur, Arthür, Ärthür, Arthųr, Ãrthur

  • French given name5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Belgium, Canada

    Also written Arthür, Ãrthur, Arthùr

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Ārthur, Árthur

  • Hebrew given name9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Israel, United States, Egypt, Germany

    Languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic

    Also written ארתור, ארטור, Artur, Arturo, አርተር

  • Russian given name65 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Kazakhstan

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish

    Also written Артур, Artur, 'Artur, Artour, Артюр

  • Hindi given name27 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Pakistan

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Bangla

    Also written Atar, Ataru, আতার, আতারু, Ātar

101 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1700180019002000Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, b. 1769Arthur Balfour, b. 1848Neville Chamberlain, b. 1869Arthur Holly Compton, b. 1892John Gielgud, b. 1904Art Carney, b. 1918Jack Brabham, b. 1926Christopher Plummer, b. 1929Steven Pinker, b. 1954Gerard Way, b. 1977
  • Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellingtonb. 1769IEBritish Field Marshal, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1828–1830, 1834 (1769-1852)
  • Arthur Balfourb. 1848GBBritish Prime Minister, Conservative politician, and statesman (1848-1930)
  • Neville Chamberlainb. 1869GBnot in their usual namePrime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940
  • Arthur Holly Comptonb. 1892USAmerican physicist (1892–1962)
  • John Gielgudb. 1904GBnot in their usual nameBritish actor and theatre director (1904-2000)
  • Art Carneyb. 1918USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor and comedian (1918–2003)
  • Jack Brabhamb. 1926AUnot in their usual nameAustralian racing driver (1926–2014)
  • Christopher Plummerb. 1929CAnot in their usual nameCanadian actor (1929–2021)
  • Steven Pinkerb. 1954USnot in their usual nameCanadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and author, an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of the mind
  • Gerard Wayb. 1977USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer (born 1977)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 149 sources across 76 countries.

Official registers attesting Arthur
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)2022618K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—612K#28
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020205K#270
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)2020151K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)2024138K#6
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—127K#386
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—5.3K#28
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20253.8K—
GB United KingdomONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024)20243.4K#4
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020435#270

Reference works 7

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
  • Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Arthur mean, and where does it come from?
From the male personal name Arthur, of Celtic origin and uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘bear’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
Is Arthur a male or female name?
Arthur is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What are other forms of the name Arthur?
In the etymology graph, Arturo, Artur and Artie are forms of the same name in other languages; Tuur is a recorded short or pet form.
In which country does Arthur have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 1.6 million people named Arthur in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled arthur.
Where is Arthur most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Arthur is densest in Brazil — about 1 in 343 people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Arthur?
In Brazil, the national register counted 617,823 people named Arthur in 2022, about 1 in 343 residents.
How common is Arthur compared with other names?
In New Zealand, Arthur is the 117th most common given name of 26,737 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Arthur?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/arthur

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Arthur” — the 117th most common given name in New Zealand. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Arthur parses inside a full name →