From the animal name, used as a surname for someone cunning or fox-like.
Fox began as a surname before it became an occasional given name. In Old English, fox simply meant the animal, and like many early bynames it probably described someone by appearance, temperament, or craft: red-haired, quick, wary, clever. As a surname it is old and well established across the English-speaking world.
As a first name, however, it feels much newer, part of the modern move toward brisk one-syllable names, animal names, and surname-to-first-name transfers. Its appeal lies partly in how much character it packs into so little sound. The name carries unusually vivid cultural freight.
George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends, gives it a serious historical bearer, while popular culture has added other shades, from the cool skepticism of the fictional Fox Mulder to the wild intelligence that foxes often symbolize in folklore. In fables and oral tradition across Europe and beyond, the fox is the strategist, the trickster, the creature who survives by wit rather than force. That makes the name feel alert, lean, and slightly untamed.
Over time, Fox has evolved from something too obviously a surname or nickname into a stylish contemporary choice, especially for parents who want something natural but not soft, traditional but not common. It now sits at the crossroads of woodland imagery, English surname heritage, and pop-cultural edge. Few names manage to feel both ancient and sharply modern in quite the same way.