Courtney

Where Courtney comes from

Variant of Courtenay, an aristocratic Norman surname derived from place names in Normandy, from Latin Curtenus, a personal name from curtus (“short”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Courtney
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1881
    First appearance
    #740 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1962
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1964
    Courtney Love born
    American rock musician
  4. 1967
    Courtney Thorne-Smith born
    American actress
  5. 1990
    Peak, #17
    15,380 babies named Courtney — more than any year before or since.
  6. 1998
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #39.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, popular in the 1980s and the 1990s.
  • A place in the United States:
  • An unincorporated community in South Liberty Township, Yadkin County, North Carolina.
Namesakes
  • Courtney Love · American rock musician, born 1964
  • Courtney Thorne-Smith · American actress, born 1967
  • Courtney B. Vance · American actor, born 1960
  • Courtney Barnett · Australian singer-songwriter and rock guitarist, born 1987
  • Courtney Eaton · Australian actress and model, born 1996

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.