Tom

Where Tom comes from

From Middle English Thomme. Hypocorism of Thomas. The dollar-bill sense is from the portrait of Thomas Jefferson featured on it.
— Wiktionary's entry for Tom
  • 1 syllable
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year, and the peak
    #40 among boys with 399 babies — the first year on record, and still its best.
  2. 1937
    Tom Stoppard born
    Czech–English playwright
  3. 1949
    Tom Waits born
    American singer-songwriter and actor
  4. 1982
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #616.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the male given name Thomas, also used as a formal male given name.
Namesakes
  • Tom Stoppard · Czech–English playwright, 1937–2025
  • Tom Waits · American singer-songwriter and actor, born 1949
  • Tom Felton · British actor, singer and musician, born 1987
  • Tom Wilkinson · English actor, 1948–2023
  • Tom Selleck · American actor, born 1945

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.