How to say it
BANKS
/bæŋks/
Masculine
Banks
By the riverbank or slope
What it means
An English surname for someone who lived by a hillside or the bank of a river.
Banks is an English locational surname for a person who lived along a slope or the bank of a stream. It belongs to the newest wave of one-syllable surname names, the cool, clipped cousins of Brooks and Knox. It carries a faint pop-culture sheen through bearers like the singer Banks and actor-director Elizabeth Banks. Punchy, modern, and a little unexpected up front.
Popularity over time
peaked at #310 in 2025, currently #310 in 2025.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, names given to at least 5 babies in a year, 1880–present. See where the names are moving
Heads-up notes
- Spelling
A 'lived by the riverbank' surname; fits the one-syllable surname-first trend with Brooks and Knox.
Who's worn it
Historical figures, characters, and public faces who share the name. The cultural surface, for whatever weight you want to give it.
- Banks an English surname for someone who lived by a riverbank, now used as a first name
Spelling variants
- Banx
Names with the same feeling
See Banks from another angle
By style