Fun Facts About the Name Hawthorn
- 112 babies named Hawthorn: U.S. records list 112 babies given the name Hawthorn from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Hawthorn Mean?
Hawthorn means "hedge thorn" and comes from Old English. The word is a compound of haga, "hedge," and þorn, "thorn" - the thorny shrub planted along field boundaries. It is the ordinary English word for trees and shrubs of the genus Crataegus, also called maytree or whitethorn.
The surname Hawthorne, with a final e, comes from the same word and arose as a topographic name for someone who lived by a hawthorn. As a given name, Hawthorn is taken directly from the plant word rather than being a translation, a short form, or a variant of an unrelated name. Later symbolic readings of the hawthorn - protection, hope, May Day - are associations of the tree, not part of its etymology.
Hawthorn Name History & Origins
The Old English form is usually given as hagaþorn, a compound naming a shrub grown as a living fence; its dense thorns made it useful for enclosing fields and marking boundaries. Middle English forms such as hawethorn and hathorn lead to the modern spelling. The same word served as a surname in medieval England, given to someone who lived near a hawthorn, and it also appears in English place names, such as Hawthorn in County Durham and the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn in Victoria, Australia.
Use of Hawthorn as a first name belongs to the modern fashion for nature names drawn from plant and tree words. It is uncommon, and the spelling Hawthorne is far more familiar as a surname - notably that of the nineteenth-century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose family name was earlier spelled Hathorne.
The tree itself carries a long folk tradition in Britain and Ireland, where the hawthorn is linked with May Day and with fairies, and where lone hawthorns were often left standing in fields and hedges. That folklore explains the plant's cultural associations but does not affect the meaning of the name.
How Popular is the Name Hawthorn?
Hawthorn has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2021. Its best rank was #5,413 in 2021.
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 | #7,866 | 10 | 0.0006% |
| 2024 | #5,732 | 16 | 0.0009% |
| 2023 | #10,102 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2022 | #6,604 | 13 | 0.0007% |
| 2021 | #5,413 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2020 | #9,008 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 2019 | #6,207 | 14 | 0.0008% |
| 2018 | #8,402 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2017 | #10,085 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2014 | #11,220 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2012 | #12,943 | 5 | 0.0003% |
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 Hawthorn Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You attract success and money. You are a lover of nature and do not need others for your happiness. You are self sufficient. You strive for material success and power and have business sense. You possess strong organizational abilities, can be a good manager, and executive by nature. You are capable of great achievement in business and finance. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.
Position and social status is very important for you and you are always looking for way to improve your position in society. You have power and ability to chose your own destiny and achieve anything you want in life. You can expand in any direction according to your will and the set of values. You have passion for justice and belong to the position of authority. You have an inherent courage and endurance to accomplish "The Impossible Dream". With the power comes responsibility. You hold keys to the material world, but with this gift comes high spiritual responsibility to be fair and true to others. You are philosophical and mature, determined and intense with a desire to endure, often religious.
✦ Hawthorn's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Hawthorn's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.