Fun Facts About the Name Banks
- More than 6 thousand babies named Banks: U.S. records list 6,962 babies given the name Banks from 1880 through 2025. Even 507 girls received the name Banks - about 1 girl for every 13 boys.
What Does the Name Banks Mean?
Banks is an English surname used as a given name, and its meaning comes from the land rather than from a personal name. It goes back to the Middle English word banke, meaning a bank, ridge, slope, or hillside - the raised ground along a river or the side of a hill. In northern England and southern Scotland, where Norse and Danish settlement left its mark on local speech, the same idea appears as Old Norse bakki and Old Danish banke, both naming a bank, ridge, or hillock. In its usual sense the name described a person who lived on or near such a feature.
A second, related explanation treats some families as taking the name from an English place called Bank or Banks, such as Banks in Lancashire, rather than from a general landscape term. A minor and less commonly accepted view derives it instead from an occupational nickname for a banker or moneychanger, from the bench (banca) such a person used; the topographic sense is the standard one, and the exact share of families that fall under each explanation is not documented.
Banks Name History & Origins
Banks belongs to the large class of English topographic surnames - family names taken from the landscape where a person lived. In medieval England, before such names became fixed and inherited, a person was often recorded with a preposition attached: atte Banke, meaning "at the bank," or a comparable form referring to a riverbank, a ridge, or a hillside. As surnames settled during the later Middle Ages, these phrases were shortened to plain forms such as Bank and Banks. The final s is a common English surname ending for landscape terms and does not add a separate meaning.
The surname is especially associated with Lancashire and the north of England, as well as with the Scottish Lowlands, which fits the Norse and Danish use of bakki and banke in those regions. A notable later bearer of the surname was the English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks (1743 - 1820), who sailed with Captain James Cook and later served as president of the Royal Society.
Banks entered use as a first name through the practice of handing down a family surname as a given name, a custom that grew common in Britain and especially in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is given to both boys and girls and generally honors a family member or a mother's maiden name rather than pointing directly to the landscape. Its appearance in fiction - the Banks family, headed by George Banks, in P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins stories and the Disney films, and the title of the 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks - is a modern literary use of a surname that had already existed for centuries.
How Popular is the Name Banks?
Banks recorded its highest annual U.S. birth count in 2025. Its best rank was #310 in 2025.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #2,105 | 89 | 0.0055% |
| 2024 | #2,052 | 94 | 0.0058% |
| 2023 | #2,316 | 79 | 0.0049% |
| 2022 | #2,210 | 85 | 0.0052% |
| 2021 | #2,252 | 82 | 0.0050% |
| 2020 | #3,147 | 50 | 0.0031% |
| 2019 | #5,635 | 22 | 0.0013% |
| 2018 | #14,055 | 6 | 0.0004% |
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #310 | 1,099 | 0.0643% |
| 2024 | #366 | 899 | 0.0524% |
| 2023 | #348 | 941 | 0.0551% |
| 2022 | #407 | 787 | 0.0451% |
| 2021 | #504 | 582 | 0.0333% |
| 2020 | #753 | 322 | 0.0187% |
| 2019 | #915 | 240 | 0.0134% |
| 2018 | #1,203 | 156 | 0.0086% |
| 2017 | #1,487 | 113 | 0.0061% |
| 2016 | #1,390 | 126 | 0.0066% |
| 2015 | #1,539 | 106 | 0.0055% |
| 2014 | #1,671 | 92 | 0.0048% |
| 2013 | #2,282 | 56 | 0.0030% |
| 2012 | #1,983 | 71 | 0.0037% |
| 2011 | #2,322 | 55 | 0.0029% |
| 2010 | #2,518 | 49 | 0.0026% |
| 2009 | #2,705 | 45 | 0.0023% |
| 2008 | #3,934 | 26 | 0.0013% |
| 2007 | #5,017 | 18 | 0.0009% |
| 2006 | #3,091 | 35 | 0.0017% |
| 2005 | #3,627 | 26 | 0.0013% |
| 2004 | #6,579 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 2003 | #5,590 | 13 | 0.0007% |
| 2002 | #6,129 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 2001 | #4,913 | 15 | 0.0008% |
| 2000 | #4,601 | 16 | 0.0008% |
| 1999 | #6,086 | 10 | 0.0005% |
| 1998 | #7,636 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 1997 | #8,224 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 1996 | #6,555 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 1990 | #5,414 | 9 | 0.0004% |
| 1988 | #6,502 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 1986 | #5,386 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 1974 | #5,281 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1970 | #4,783 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1966 | #3,986 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1961 | #4,110 | 5 | 0.0002% |
| 1960 | #4,074 | 5 | 0.0002% |
| 1957 | #4,027 | 5 | 0.0002% |
| 1956 | #3,239 | 7 | 0.0003% |
| 1955 | #2,980 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 1954 | #2,758 | 9 | 0.0004% |
| 1952 | #2,529 | 10 | 0.0005% |
| 1951 | #2,674 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 1949 | #3,726 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1948 | #3,341 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 1947 | #2,369 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 1946 | #2,708 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 1943 | #3,250 | 6 | 0.0004% |
| 1942 | #2,722 | 8 | 0.0006% |
| 1941 | #2,672 | 8 | 0.0007% |
| 1940 | #2,678 | 8 | 0.0007% |
| 1939 | #2,299 | 10 | 0.0009% |
| 1938 | #2,665 | 8 | 0.0007% |
| 1937 | #2,498 | 9 | 0.0008% |
| 1936 | #2,879 | 7 | 0.0007% |
| 1935 | #2,978 | 7 | 0.0007% |
| 1934 | #2,407 | 10 | 0.0010% |
| 1933 | #3,031 | 7 | 0.0007% |
| 1932 | #2,476 | 10 | 0.0010% |
| 1931 | #2,671 | 9 | 0.0009% |
| 1930 | #2,622 | 10 | 0.0009% |
| 1929 | #2,215 | 13 | 0.0012% |
| 1928 | #2,054 | 15 | 0.0014% |
| 1927 | #2,047 | 16 | 0.0014% |
| 1926 | #2,739 | 10 | 0.0009% |
| 1925 | #2,323 | 13 | 0.0012% |
| 1924 | #2,662 | 11 | 0.0010% |
| 1923 | #2,461 | 12 | 0.0011% |
| 1922 | #1,652 | 22 | 0.0020% |
| 1921 | #2,386 | 13 | 0.0012% |
| 1920 | #1,646 | 22 | 0.0021% |
| 1919 | #1,814 | 18 | 0.0018% |
| 1918 | #2,169 | 14 | 0.0014% |
| 1917 | #2,433 | 11 | 0.0012% |
| 1916 | #2,272 | 12 | 0.0013% |
| 1915 | #2,645 | 9 | 0.0011% |
| 1914 | #2,469 | 8 | 0.0012% |
| 1913 | #1,958 | 9 | 0.0018% |
| 1912 | #2,296 | 6 | 0.0014% |
| 1911 | #1,551 | 6 | 0.0027% |
| 1909 | #1,162 | 7 | 0.0043% |
| 1905 | #1,010 | 7 | 0.0053% |
| 1891 | #980 | 5 | 0.0049% |
| 1887 | #690 | 8 | 0.0079% |
| 1883 | #902 | 5 | 0.0048% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Banks Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You can go to great heights and equally great depths. You are emotional and fixed in your opinions. You are hospitable, sentimental, often psychic, sometimes moody. You are ruled by love and the lack of it and feel a need to be encouraged and appreciated. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.
You are always looking for an opportunity to achieve financial and emotional security. You are basically peacemaker. You understand the law of harmony and desire to balance your life with those around you. You may feel incomplete without someone to share your love, ideals, wealth or work. You can be very sensitive and could appear a bit shy and perceptive. You have developed intuition, patience and the ability to nurture others. You can achieve the state of happiness if you are willing to accept your needs in a complimentary relationship and go to create them.
✦ Banks's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Banks's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.