Eugene
Top 1000
About Eugene
Eugene is a classic that has rather lost its way. On the one hand, it's a grandpa, even great-grandpa name that hasn't been one of the cool kids recently—or to quote Jim Carrey, who bears this name in the middle spot, "You can never get too cool with a name like Eugene." The hero of Disney's Tangled felt the same way, when he changed his birth name of Eugene to the more romantic Flynn.
And yet! Eugene has had a long history of popularity, as a Top 50 name from 1880 to the 1940s. In fact, it has never been out of the Top 1000, making it a classic that's still given to hundreds of boys each year. It's even stopped falling in the last few years, and we could speculate that one day it will return to style.
Also on the plus side, there were four popes and several saints named Eugene. A literary namesake is playwright Eugene O'Neill, and in art history Eugene Delacroix. In addition, there is the classic Russian novel by Pushkin, Eugene Onegin, and Eugene is the name Neil Simon used for his stand-in in three autobiographical plays, starting with Brighton Beach Memoirs.
The female form, Eugenie, is chic and elegant, belonging to one of the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of York.
As of October 2026, Eugene ranked #943 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #20 in 1927, Nameberry popularity #315.
Editor's take: The name Eugene is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "wellborn, noble".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #791 | 291 | 151.5 |
| 2015 | #825 | 274 | 143 |
| 2016 | #789 | 300 | 158.1 |
| 2017 | #821 | 274 | 148 |
| 2018 | #864 | 254 | 139.9 |
| 2019 | #786 | 296 | 165 |
| 2020 | #839 | 272 | 157.6 |
| 2021 | #850 | 279 | 159.5 |
| 2022 | #930 | 248 | 142 |
| 2023 | #918 | 251 | 146.7 |
| 2024 | #870 | 276 | 160.2 |
| 2025 | #943 | 249 | 145.8 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Eugene.
Famous Eugenes
- Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
American playwright
- (Ferdinand Victor) Eugène Delacroix
French Romantic painter
- Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs
American socialist politician
- Eugene Merle Shoemaker
American geologist
- Eugène Simon
French naturalist
- Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy
American politician and poet
- Eugene Ormandy
Hungarian,American conductor and violinist
- Eugene Louis "Gore" Vidal
American novelist
- Eugene "Gene" Cernan
American astronaut
- Eugene Amano
American NFL football player
- Eugene Sims
American NFL football player
- Eugene Monroe
American NFL football player
- Eugene Ionesco (born Eugen Ionescu)
Romanian playwright
- Eugene Mirman
Russian,American comedian
- Eugene Osment
American actor
- Eugene Wigner
Hungarian American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel prize winner
- Eugene Lee Yang
actor and writer/producer/director for The Try Guys
- Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin
American Astronaut
- James Eugene "Jim" Carrey
Canadian actor
- Eugene Pip (b. 2012)
son of actress Billie Piper
- Eugene (b. 2017)
son of actor Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind
- Eugene "Gene" Curran Kelly
American dancer, actor of film, stage, and television, singer, film director, producer, and choreographer
- Eugene Levy (b. 1946) Canadian comedic actor
was in all the American Pie films
Eugene in pop culture
- Eugene Wrayburn
character in Charles Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend"
- Eugene Arlington
main character in Patrick Stumph's film "Moustachette"
- Eugene Tannenbaum
from the movie "Evan Almighty"
- Eugene Fitzherbert aka Flynn Rider
character in Disney's "Tangled"
- Eugene "Arseface" Root
character in DC Universe's "Preacher"
- Mr. Eugene H. Krabs
character from "SpongeBob Squarepants"
- Eugene Horowitz
character from animated TV series "Hey Arnold"
- Lucas Eugene Scott
main character on "One Tree Hill"
- Eugene Porter
character on "The Walking Dead"
- Eugene Roe
Easy Company Medic in "Band of Brothers"
- Eugene "Gene" Belcher
character in FOX animated series "Bob's Burgers"
- Eugene Felsnic
nerdy character in musical "Grease"
- Eugene Meltsner
character in radio programme "Adventures in Odyssey"
- Eugene Tackleberry
gun loving character in the "Police Academy" Films & Animated Series
- Eugene Meltsner
character in the audio series Adventure in Odyessy
Variations & nicknames
- YevgenyRussian
- EvgeniRussian
- EvženCzech
- JenöHungarian
- EugenGreek
- EugenioItalian
- EugèneFrench
- EugeniuszPolish
- EugeniosGreek
- EugeniusDutch
- YevhenUkrainian
- JenoGreek