Monroe

Where Monroe comes from

From Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”) + Roe, a river in Northern Ireland, meaning "man from the River Roe".
— Wiktionary's entry for Monroe
  • From a surname
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #220 among boys — 53 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1882
    Peak, #177
    76 babies named Monroe — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1915
    Monroe Beardsley born
    American philosopher
  4. 1984
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,842.
  5. 2008
    Monroe born
    French-American singer
  6. 2009
    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.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Monroe · French-American singer, born 2008
  • Monroe Beardsley · American philosopher, 1915–1985
  • Monroe Salisbury · actor, 1876–1935
  • Monroe Owsley · American actor, 1900–1937
  • Monroe Hayward · Union Army soldier, lawyer, politician, 1840–1899

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.