Arius
A Greek masculine name meaning "warlike" or "martial".
Name Census estimates that about 1,100 living Americans carry the first name Arius. It is a predominantly male name (96.2% of registrations). The average person named Arius today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arius births was 2021 (83 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arius. 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 Arius with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Arius is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 311,595 Americans
Peak year
2021
83 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,554
Tracked since 1982
Census
Arius in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 773 people with the first name Arius, which placed it at #15,009 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
#15,009
National first-name rank
People counted
773
773 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
38.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arius
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arius is Black at 38.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.5%) and White (22.4%). 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 Arius 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 Arius at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American38.8% · 300
- Hispanic or Latino23.5% · 182
- White22.4% · 173
- Two or more races10.0% · 77
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 27
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Arius
Arius leans heavily male at 96.2% of total registrations, but 42 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Arius as a male name
- Ranked #2,554 in 2024
- 52 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (83 births)
Arius as a female name
- Ranked #14,540 in 2016
- 6 female births in 2016
- Peak: 2004 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arius leans strongly male. 677 people counted with this name were male (87.7%), compared with 95 female bearers (12.3%).
Popularity
Arius: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arius from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 472 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Arius remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arius 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 Arius during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arius' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Arius, while Ohio, Arizona, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 37 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arius
The name Arius has its origins in the ancient Greek language, likely stemming from the Greek word "Ares," which was the name of the Greek god of war and courage. The earliest known use of the name dates back to the 3rd century AD, during the time of the Roman Empire.
Arius was a Christian presbyter from Alexandria who lived from around 250-336 AD. He is infamous for his controversial theological views that became known as Arianism, which rejected the concept of the Trinity and denied the full divinity of Christ. His teachings sparked the Arian controversy and were eventually condemned as heretical by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
Another notable figure named Arius was a Roman philosopher and Stoic who lived in the 2nd century AD. He is mentioned in the writings of the Roman philosopher Epictetus and is believed to have authored several works on Stoic philosophy, although none of his writings have survived.
In the 5th century, Arius was also the name of a Roman military commander who served under the Western Roman Emperor Honorius. He is recorded as having led successful campaigns against the Visigoths and other barbarian tribes that threatened the empire.
During the Byzantine era, Arius was the name of a prominent Christian theologian and writer who lived in the 6th century AD. He is known for his work titled "Arianus," which was a collection of theological treatises and commentaries on various biblical texts.
Another notable bearer of the name was Arius Didymus, a Greek philosopher and scholar who lived in the 1st century BC. He was a contemporary of the Roman philosopher Cicero and is credited with writing several works on Stoic philosophy and ethics, although most of his writings have been lost.
While the name Arius has ancient Greek roots, it has been used throughout history in various cultures and regions, often associated with individuals who made significant contributions to philosophy, theology, or military affairs. However, the name has largely fallen out of widespread use in modern times.
People
Arius + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arius 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
Arius: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arius?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,100 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arius 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 311,595 US residents.
Is Arius a common name?
We classify Arius as "Rare". It ranks above 90.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,113 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arius most popular?
The single biggest year for Arius was 2021, when 83 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arius is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arius in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 773 people with the name Arius, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,009 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 Arius 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 Arius?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arius leans strongly male. 677 people counted with this name were male (87.7%), compared with 95 female bearers (12.3%). 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 Arius?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arius is Black at 38.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.5%) and White (22.4%). 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 Arius most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Arius in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.8% (300 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 Arius in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arius a male name?
Yes, 96.2% of people registered as Arius 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 Arius still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arius 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 Arius 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 share the name Arius?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.