Andrew
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave".
Name Census estimates that about 1,151,621 living Americans carry the first name Andrew. It sits at #68 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Andrew today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Andrew births was 1987 (36,428 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Mark (1,144,344).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Andrew. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Andrew with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Andrew is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,953 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.2M
~ 1 in 298 Americans
Peak year
1987
36,428 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#68
Tracked since 1880
Census
Andrew in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,075,510 people with the first name Andrew, which placed it at #22 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#22
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1M
1,075,510 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
356.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Andrew
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Andrew is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.5%) and Black (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Andrew described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Andrew at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.0% · 817,169
- Hispanic or Latino11.5% · 123,229
- Black or African American4.7% · 50,757
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 43,984
- Two or more races3.3% · 35,534
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4,837
Gender
Gender distribution for Andrew
Out of the 1,329,846 babies given the name Andrew since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Andrew as a male name
- Ranked #68 in 2024
- 4,772 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1987 (36,205 births)
Andrew as a female name
- Ranked #10,307 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1987 (223 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Andrew appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,075,513 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Andrew: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Andrew from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 286,802 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Andrew by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Andrew during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 6,053 | 10 | 6,063 |
| 1890s | 5,719 | 10 | 5,729 |
| 1900s | 6,277 | 0 | 6,277 |
| 1910s | 28,152 | 129 | 28,281 |
| 1920s | 35,952 | 252 | 36,204 |
| 1930s | 25,025 | 179 | 25,204 |
| 1940s | 34,618 | 150 | 34,768 |
| 1950s | 60,970 | 209 | 61,179 |
| 1960s | 97,112 | 393 | 97,505 |
| 1970s | 132,943 | 664 | 133,607 |
| 1980s | 285,094 | 1,708 | 286,802 |
| 1990s | 272,929 | 679 | 273,608 |
| 2000s | 202,577 | 395 | 202,972 |
| 2010s | 105,056 | 134 | 105,190 |
| 2020s | 26,416 | 41 | 26,457 |
Geography
Where Andrews live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Andrew, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25,653 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Andrew
The name Andrew is derived from the Greek name Andreas, which itself is a derivation of the Greek word "andr" meaning "man" or "warrior". The name can be traced back to ancient Greece and was one of the earliest Christian names adopted due to its association with the apostle Andrew, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ.
The name first appeared in the New Testament of the Bible, where Andrew is described as a Galilean fisherman and the brother of Simon Peter. According to the Gospel of John, Andrew was initially a disciple of John the Baptist before becoming one of the first followers of Jesus.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Andrew was Andrew the Apostle, who lived in the 1st century AD. He is celebrated as the patron saint of several countries, including Scotland, Russia, and Greece.
Another notable figure named Andrew was Andrew the Philosopher, a Byzantine scholar who lived in the 7th century AD. He is known for his works on philosophy and theology.
In the 10th century, Andrew the Blind-Seer was a renowned Russian monk and saint, revered for his clairvoyance and healing abilities.
During the Middle Ages, the name Andrew gained popularity across Europe, particularly in Scotland. One of the most famous Scottish figures with the name was Andrew of Wyntoun, a 15th-century poet and chronicler who wrote the important historical work "Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland".
In the 16th century, Andrew Melville was a prominent Scottish scholar and theologian who played a significant role in the Scottish Reformation.
As the name spread to other parts of the world, notable individuals with the name Andrew emerged in various fields. For example, Andrew Jackson, born in 1767, was the 7th President of the United States and a renowned military leader.
Andrew Carnegie, born in 1835, was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist who played a pivotal role in the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century.
Overall, the name Andrew has a rich history spanning over two millennia, with roots in ancient Greece and a strong association with the Christian faith. Its popularity has endured across various cultures and regions, producing numerous influential figures throughout history.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Andrew
People
Andrew + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Andrew as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Andrew: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Andrew?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,151,621 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Andrew going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 298 US residents.
Is Andrew a common name?
We classify Andrew as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,329,846 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Andrew most popular?
The single biggest year for Andrew was 1987, when 36,428 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Andrew is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Andrew in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,075,510 people with the name Andrew, or 356.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Andrew in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Andrew?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Andrew appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,075,513 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Andrew?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Andrew is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.5%) and Black (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Andrew most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Andrew in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.0% (817,169 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Andrew in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Andrew a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Andrew in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Andrew still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Andrew in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Andrew can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Andrew?
You can see how many Americans are named Andrew on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.