Payton is an Old English surname-turned-given-name meaning "Pæga's settlement" or "fighter's estate" — one of those place-name derivations that has been thoroughly divorced from geography and now functions purely as a first name. With 24,626 SSA records for boys and a 2000 peak, Payton (on boys) sits at rank 1516 — a name that crossed heavily into girls' use during the 2000s and has since drifted there, leaving the boys' chart thinning.
From English Place Name to American Crossover Name
Payton (also spelled Peyton) rose sharply in the 1990s and peaked around 2000, driven heavily by the fame of NFL quarterback Peyton Manning — whose father Archie named him after a Mississippi town. The Peyton spelling became the boys' dominant form, while Payton trended toward girls. This is a well-documented pattern in American naming: a name popularized by a famous male bearer crosses to girls in the subsequent decade and becomes female-coded, which then reduces its male use. 1990s baby names were particularly prone to this kind of rapid gender crossover.
The Peyton vs. Payton Split
The spelling difference matters culturally. Peyton Manning (and Peyton Sawyer from One Tree Hill) made the Peyton spelling the dominant form. Payton with an A reads as either a stylistic variant or a more feminine-coded choice, depending on context. For parents who specifically want the name for a boy in 2025, the Peyton spelling is going to read as more straightforwardly masculine. Payton versus Peyton is essentially a question of which cultural associations you're invoking with a single vowel.
The Counter-Reading: The Gender Ambiguity Issue
The central challenge with Payton for a boy in 2025 is that the name reads as gender-neutral at best and female-leaning in many American contexts. That's not a disqualifier for every family — gender-neutral names have genuine appeal , but it's worth naming honestly. Peyton on a boy lands differently than Payton, even though they are phonetically identical. Parents who want the sound with cleaner masculine legibility will likely prefer Peyton.