Snow

Spellings & scripts●(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)

Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.

Often considered alongside

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Snow, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• White
• Winter
• Frost
• Lumi
• Lang
• Jon
• Winters
• Wynter
• Eira
• Neve
• Harrington
• Cinderella

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

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

Snow is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian

  Also written Snòw

• Polish surname28 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, Russia

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Сноу, Snou, Ŝnôw, Snów, Snov

68 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.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Snow is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from OE snāw ‘snow’, a nickname for snow-white hair; first attested Richard Snow 1221 AssWo

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, The partly frozen, crystalline state of water that falls from the atmosphere as precipitation in flakes; also, the falling of such flakes; and the accumulation of them on the ground or on objects as a white layer.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Irish, Woulfe treats this as an epithetal name— An tSneachta —but the great majority of families of Snow descend from settlers under the Plantation of Ulster

  as a name·The Surnames of Ireland

• In enm, snow (frozen water as precipitation, either while falling or once landed)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In yol, alternative form of sneew

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• John Snowb. 1813GBEnglish epidemiologist and physician (1813–1858)
• Charles Percy Snowb. 1905GBEnglish novelist and physical chemist (1905–1980)
• Hank Snowb. 1914USCanadian musician (1914–1999)
• John W. Snowb. 1939US73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury
• Tom Snowb. 1947USAmerican composer
• Jon Snowb. 1947GBBritish broadcaster
• Tony Snowb. 1955USAmerican White House Press Secretary (1955-2008)
• Eric Snowb. 1973USAmerican basketball player (born 1973)
• Dan Snowb. 1978GBBritish historian and television presenter
• Brittany Snowb. 1986USAmerican actress and model

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).

How to address them○(machine-generated)

Evidence●(measured from records)

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

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Snow mean, and where does it come from?

(i) from a medieval nickname for someone with white hair or a very pale face; (ii) anglicization of invented Jewish names beginning with German Schnee or Yiddish shnee ‘snow’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

How common is the name Snow?

In the United States, the national register counted 47,528 people named Snow in 2010, about 1 in 7.0 thousand residents.

How common is Snow compared with other names?

In the United States, Snow is the 644th most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.

How do you pronounce Snow?

A machine transcription gives /snəʊ/ (IPA) for English.

In which country does Snow have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 48 thousand people named Snow, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled snow.