Saxon

Where Saxon comes from

Partially from Middle English Saxe, Sax; from Old English *Seaxa (attested in plural Seaxan), and Saxoun, from Old French *Saxoun, Saxon (“Saxon”), from Late Latin Saxōnem, accusative of Saxō (“a Saxon”), both from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“rock, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Doublet of Sais. Cognates Cognate with Middle Low German sasse (“someone speaking Saxon, i.e. (Middle) Low German”), Old English Seaxa (“a Saxon”), Old High German Sahso (“a Saxon”), Icelandic Saxi (“a Saxon”), Estonian saks (“lord; German”), Finnish Saksa (“Germany”). Also cognate to Old English seax (“a knife, hip-knife, an instrument for cutting, a short sword, dirk, dagger”); more at sax.
— Wiktionary's entry for Saxon
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1954
    First appearance
    #3,827 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1954
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1996
    Peak, #1,785
    51 babies named Saxon — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1998
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #3,092.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage or directly from the noun Saxon.
Namesakes

We look up famous namesakes for names that have made the top 1,000. Saxon hasn't yet.

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.