Washington
Washington reached its high-water mark in 1921 at number 901, and has been recorded 2,644 times in all. It has not appeared in the national data since 2024. About 900 Washingtons are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 47.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Washington
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 2,644
- Estimated living today
- 900
- Median age today
- 47
- Peak year
- 1921
- Best rank
- 901st
- Rank in 2025
- unranked
- First recorded
- 1880
How old the living Washingtons are
born that year still alive today
Of the 2,644 babies given the name since 1880, about 900 are alive — 34 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1978 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin a surname
Washington (the town in Tyne and Wear, northeast England): probably from the Old English place name Hwæssingatūn. It was attested in 1096 as Wasindone. There are other theories; more on Wikipedia.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Washingtons
- Washington Irving (1783–1859)American writer, historian and diplomat
- Washington Stecanela Cerqueira (born 1975)Brazilian association football player
- Washington Luís (1869–1957)President of Brazil from 1926 to 1930
- Washington Allston (1779–1843)American artist
- Washington Luiz Mascarenhas Silva (born 1978)Brazilian association football player
- Washington Luiz Pereira dos Santos (born 1975)Brazilian association football player
- Washington Ortuño (1928–1973)Uruguayan footballer
- Washington Luigi Garcia (born 1978)Brazilian association football player
People named Washington with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Washington is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Washington is most concentrated in South Carolina (11.7×), Mississippi (10.9×), Alabama (8.3×), Georgia (4.1×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1921
The most popular boys’ names the year Washington peaked:
Washington among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Washington | — | 5 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Related names
Washington against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.