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Thornton
OriginEnglish
Meaning"place in the thorns"
About Thornton
Despite Thornton Wilder, playwright of the perennial Our Town, only a handful of baby boys receive this name each year..
Pronounced THORN-tun.
As of October 2026, Thornton ranked #8190 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #440 in 1888.
Editor's take: The name Thornton is a boy's name of English origin meaning "place in the thorns".
Popularity & trends
US popularity — history
US rank, lower is more popular · SSA data 2014–2025
Actual · SSA
20142025
18802025
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | — | 0 | 0 |
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Thornton on lists
Famous Thorntons
- Thornton Niven Wilder
American playwright
- Thornton Starr Lee
American baseball player
- Thornton Waldo Burgess
American children's author and conservationist
- Thornton Dial
American painter
- Thornton Willis
American painter
- (James Brown) Thornton Chase
American businessman; first Western convert to Bahá'í
- Thornton Fletcher Bell
U.S. federal judge
Thornton in pop culture
- John Thornton
main character in Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South"
- Thornton Wolff
character in "The Sims 3" computer game
- Thorntons
the name of a famous British chocolate company
Variations & nicknames
Thornton in blog posts
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