Arrow
A name derived from the word for the pointed projectile weapon.
Name Census estimates that about 2,442 living Americans carry the first name Arrow. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Arrow today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arrow births was 2018 (283 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arrow. 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 Arrow with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Arrow is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 140,358 Americans
Peak year
2018
283 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,672
Tracked since 1971
Census
Arrow in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,519 people with the first name Arrow, which placed it at #9,241 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
#9,241
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,519 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arrow
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arrow is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.2%) and Two or More Races (10.0%). 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 Arrow 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 Arrow at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.5% · 934
- Hispanic or Latino14.2% · 216
- Two or more races10.0% · 152
- American Indian and Alaska Native6.9% · 105
- Black or African American4.7% · 72
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 40
Gender
Gender distribution for Arrow
Arrow is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,461 total registrations, 1,639 (66.6%) were male and 822 (33.4%) were female.
Arrow as a male name
- Ranked #1,672 in 2024
- 100 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (172 births)
Arrow as a female name
- Ranked #3,331 in 2024
- 47 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (111 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arrow on both sides of the split. Of the 1,516 people counted with this name, 988 were male (65.2%) and 528 were female (34.8%).
Popularity
Arrow: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arrow from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,341 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Arrow remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arrow 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 Arrow during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arrows live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Arrow, while Massachusetts, Kentucky, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 42 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arrow
The name Arrow is an English word name derived from the projectile weapon used with a bow. It has its origins in the Old English word "arwe" or "arwe," which itself comes from the Proto-Germanic "arkhwo." The name likely emerged as a given name in the modern era, perhaps inspired by the symbolism of strength, speed, and precision associated with the arrow.
While the word "arrow" has ancient roots, there is little evidence of its use as a given name in historical records or literature until more recent times. It does not appear to have been a common name in ancient civilizations or found in religious texts or scriptures.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Arrow is Arrow Williams, a Native American activist and actor born in 1923. He was known for his work in promoting Native American rights and his roles in films such as "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Thunderheart."
Another notable person with the name Arrow is Arrow Auker, an American baseball player who pitched for the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in 1904 and played in the major leagues from 1933 to 1945.
In the realm of literature, Arrow is the name of a character in the science fiction novel "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, published in 1993. Arrow is a young girl in the dystopian society depicted in the book.
Arrow Betz is a contemporary American actor and musician, known for his roles in films such as "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" and the television series "Longmire." He was born in 1982.
Arrow Newer is a Canadian actress and model, born in 1988. She has appeared in various television shows and films, including "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" alongside Arrow Betz.
It's worth noting that while the name Arrow has gained some popularity in recent times, it remains a relatively uncommon given name, particularly in comparison to more traditional names. Its usage reflects a modern trend towards unique and symbolic names inspired by natural elements or concepts.
People
Arrow + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arrow 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
Arrow: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arrow?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,442 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arrow 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 140,358 US residents.
Is Arrow a common name?
We classify Arrow as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,461 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arrow most popular?
The single biggest year for Arrow was 2018, when 283 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arrow is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arrow in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,519 people with the name Arrow, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,241 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 Arrow 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 Arrow?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arrow on both sides of the split. Of the 1,516 people counted with this name, 988 were male (65.2%) and 528 were female (34.8%). 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 Arrow?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arrow is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.2%) and Two or More Races (10.0%). 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 Arrow most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arrow in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.5% (934 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 Arrow in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arrow a male name?
Yes, 66.6% of people registered as Arrow 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 Arrow still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arrow 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 Arrow 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 have the name Arrow?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Arrow, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.