Curtis

The name traces to the Old French curteis, a medieval byname that transitioned into a hereditary English surname after the eleventh century. It established itself in American registers by the late nineteenth century as part of the broader practice of adopting surnames as given names. The record has tracked it continuously since 1880, seeing modest use until mid-twentieth-century birth certificates began logging it in substantial volume.

A Curtis tends to be pictured checking tire pressure with a metal pencil gauge on an overcast Saturday. The name reads as someone who owns a functional transistor radio and knows which hardware store carries odd-threaded brass screws. With an estimated average age of fifty-three, the name belongs largely to the generations that grew up alongside leaded gasoline and paper road maps. Annual registrations fell to 232 in 2025, leaving the name nearly absent from elementary school rosters. It has quietly become a name held by men who possess at least three working tape measures.