Orion
Where Orion comes from
From Middle English Orioun, from Latin Ōrīōn, from Ancient Greek Ὠρίων (Ōríōn), speculatively from Akkadian 𒌋𒊒𒀭𒈾 (Uru-anna, “heaven's light”), though without any firm evidence.
- Ancient Greek
- 3 syllables
Along the way
- 500Orion of Thebes bornEgyptian grammarian
- 1825Orion Clemens bornAmerican politician
- 1880First SSA yearAlready #909 among boys — 5 babies in the first year on record.
- 2018Peak, #3001,152 babies named Orion — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
- A male given name from Ancient Greek of modern usage.
- A female given name.
Namesakes
- Orion of Thebes · Egyptian grammarian, 500–460
- Orion Clemens · American politician, 1825–1897
- Orion Weiss · American pianist, born 1981
- Orion Outerbridge · American basketball player, born 1988
- Orion P. Howe · United States Army Medal of Honor recipient, 1848–1930
Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.