Ted

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ted is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name60K records spelled Ted5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Téd

• French given name15K records spelled Ted3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, Congo - Kinshasa

  Also written Tèd, Ted'

• Polish given name6.1K records spelled Ted29 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Russian

  Also written Tad, Тед, Tedd, Тэд, Tadd

63 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ted is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Ted är en engelsk smekform till → Edvard och → Theodor. En känd svensk namnbärare är kompositören och sångaren Ted Gärdestad (1956–97). I den finlandssvenska almanackan 9 november.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• Short form of ane Pet form: Teddy.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In German, männl. Vom., engHsche Kurzform von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Akan, = du^se^, duAs^, kase6, mankyiri, teasee; cf tia, tiaff. tea, teatea, a. narrow, stnall; thin, slender, slight, lean: close, fight, strait; okwHii, poraa, atade; ne kon teatea, F. tenaba, tenatena, atena, tseaba, atsea. Mt.7,13.14. Cf. hihia, mQamda, fweafwga

  as a word·Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)

• English: short form of EDWARD , also used for THEODORE . Pet form: Teddy .

  as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ted de Corsiab. 1903USAmerican actor (1903-1973)
• Ted Knightb. 1923USAmerican actor (1923-1986)
• Theodor Holm Nelsonb. 1937USnot in their usual nameAmerican information technologist, philosopher, and sociologist
• Ted Turnerb. 1938USAmerican media mogul (1938–2026)
• Ted Dansonb. 1947USAmerican actor (born 1947)
• Ted McGinleyb. 1958USAmerican actor (born 1958)
• Ted Elliottb. 1961USAmerican screenwriter (born 1961)
• Ted Deutchb. 1966USAmerican politician and attorney (born 1966)
• Ted Chiangb. 1967USAmerican science fiction writer
• Ted DiBiase Jr.b. 1982USAmerican professional wrestler and actor

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 622 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ted?

We estimate roughly 58 thousand people bear Ted (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Ted have the most bearers?

We estimate about 49 thousand people bear Ted in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled ted.

Where is Ted most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Ted is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 1.4 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Ted compared with other names?

In the United States, Ted is the 478th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Ted a male or female name?

Ted is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Ted mean?

Recorded meaning: A nickname for the male given names Edward, Theodore, Thaddeus, and Edmund.