Topper

Popularity over time

Name story

Topper is an exuberant English name that began as a nickname and earned its place through sheer personality. As an occupational surname, 'Topper' originally described someone who topped or finished cloth — a craftsman's designation — but it quickly acquired the more general meaning of someone who excels, who 'tops' the field, which gave it an irresistible energy as a given name and nickname. The word topper in Victorian and Edwardian British slang also referred to a top hat, lending the name an association with dapper, high-spirited elegance.

The name entered popular consciousness most memorably through Thorne Smith's 1926 comic novel Topper, in which the mild-mannered Cosmo Topper is haunted — liberatingly, hilariously — by two hedonistic ghosts. The 1937 film adaptation starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett made 'Topper' a household word for screwball comic adventure, and a television series followed in the 1950s. The name became synonymous with a particular mid-century archetype: the respectable man who is secretly being dragged into magnificent chaos.

Topper has never been common enough to become a cliché, which has preserved its gleeful quality. It retains the feel of a nickname that has been promoted to official status — informal but never careless, affectionate but with a spine. In an era when names like Hunter, Ranger, and Catcher have found audiences, Topper fits naturally: occupational, slightly roguish, and impossible to say without a faint smile.