Mason · Daily fortune

Mason is a masculine English name meaning "stoneworker". Behind the Name derives it from an English surname — or the vocabulary word itself — which came from an Old French word of Frankish origin, akin to Old English macian, "to make". It began rising in the United States in the 1980s, Behind the Name suggests simply because of its fashionable sound, and jumped sharply after 2009 when Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick gave it to their son. It peaked as the second most popular American boys' name in 2011, and ranked #39 in 2025.

Behind the Name derives Mason "from an English surname (or vocabulary word) meaning 'stoneworker', derived from an Old French word of Frankish origin (akin to Old English macian 'to make')". Wikipedia's article on the name agrees on the substance, calling it an occupational surname meaning "one who works with stone". Neither source offers a competing origin, and unlike most surname-names Mason is fully transparent: the English word and the name are the same word, so a bearer's name states the medieval trade directly rather than through a lost root.

As a word and a surname, Mason names the medieval stoneworking trade, reaching English through Old French from a Frankish source. Its history as a first name is short and unusually well documented. Behind the Name says the name began to increase in popularity in the United States in the 1980s, "likely because of its fashionable sound" rather than any particular bearer, and that it jumped after 2009 when Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick gave it to their son, as featured on their reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians in 2010. It peaked in 2011 as the second most popular boys' name in the country — Wikipedia records the same 2011 placement — and has eased down since. Wikipedia adds that it ranked 32nd among Canadian boys' names in 2022, and that although the name is traditionally masculine it has recently been used for any gender.

Mason ranked #39 for boys in the United States in 2025 (Social Security Administration), well down from the #2 peak both sources record for 2011. That trajectory — a fast climb through the 1980s and 2000s, a celebrity-driven spike, then a steady retreat — is characteristic of trade-and-surname names that arrive on sound. Wikipedia also puts Mason at 32nd among Canadian boys' names in 2022; that national file was not fetched directly for this profile.

Mason is an English name and Behind the Name lists no "Other Languages & Cultures" forms for it — the entry's related records are the surname it comes from and the spelling variant Mayson. The English pronunciation below is the one Behind the Name gives, and Wikipedia gives the same transcription.

Mason is a working name in the most literal sense, and that is most of its appeal: it sounds solid and unpretentious, it needs no explanation, and it sits comfortably with Hudson, Logan, Carter and Grayson on a modern American shortlist. Its weakness is the same as its strength — the sound was so fashionable through the 2000s that a Mason born at the peak shares a classroom with several others, and the celebrity spike means the name carries a decade stamp for anyone who remembers where it came from. The spelling Mayson keeps the sound and loses the transparency.

The bearers below are limited to those named in the two sources consulted for this profile: the Behind the Name entry and the Wikipedia article on the name.

Names that share Mason's occupational logic, its modern American surname register, or its sound.