Chase peaked in 2009 at rank 60 and has slid to 173 in 2024. Nearly 180,000 American boys have carried the name. The chart shape shows a 2000s favorite that is now in steady descent, the same trajectory that defines Cole and Landon. Chase was one of the foundational names of the surname-firstname wave that reshaped boy naming.
The Old French verb origin
Chase comes through medieval English from Old French chacier, meaning "to hunt" or "to pursue." The surname tradition began with bearers who worked as hunters or pursued game on royal lands. Chevy Chase, the actor, is the most cited celebrity bearer, though his stage name is itself derived from the Maryland town. The transition from surname to first name happened gradually through the 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s.
Notable bearers include the actor Chase Crawford, the rugby player Chase Stanley, and the fictional Chase from Paw Patrol, which gave the name unexpected children's-television exposure starting in 2013. The Paw Patrol effect is mostly cited as a coincidence rather than a transmission vector, since the name was already established by the time the show launched.
Why the slide is steady
Chase is releasing in the same pattern as the broader 2000s surname cohort. The name was widely adopted in the 1990s and 2000s, peaked in 2009, and is now ceding ground to newer surname picks. The replacement cohort includes Beckett, Hayes, and Banks. Each generation finds its own surname picks, and Chase is now the previous generation's choice.
Phonetically Chase has the same single-syllable confidence as Cole and Cade, with a slightly softer ending. The CH onset and the long-A vowel give the name an open, athletic quality that worked well in the late 1990s and 2000s when sports-coded boy names were ascending.
The counter-reading
The honest concern with Chase is that it now reads as 2008-coded the way Brandon reads as 1990s-coded. The name is not vintage enough to revive and not contemporary enough to feel fresh. Parents picking Chase today often do so for family-name reasons or genuine personal preference rather than trend awareness. The 2000s decade view shows the original peak context.