Arwen
A feminine name derived from Sindarin, meaning "noble maiden".
Name Census estimates that about 3,080 living Americans carry the first name Arwen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Arwen today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arwen births was 2023 (179 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arwen. 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 Arwen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Arwen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.1K
~ 1 in 111,284 Americans
Peak year
2023
179 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,344
Tracked since 1968
Census
Arwen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,282 people with the first name Arwen, which placed it at #6,881 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
#6,881
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,282 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arwen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arwen is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.2%) and Two or More Races (8.8%). 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 Arwen 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 Arwen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.3% · 1,535
- Hispanic or Latino16.2% · 370
- Two or more races8.8% · 201
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.2% · 141
- Black or African American0.9% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 14
Popularity
Arwen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arwen from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,062 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Arwen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arwen 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 Arwen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arwens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Arwen, while Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 64 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arwen
The name Arwen originates from the fictional Sindarin language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for his novels set in Middle-earth. In Sindarin, the name is composed of the elements "ar" meaning "royal" and "wen" meaning "maiden".
Arwen was the name given to an Elf princess in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series. She was the daughter of Elrond, a powerful Elf-lord, and Celebrían, who was descended from the royal line of Galadriel. Arwen's character plays a significant role in the story, as she becomes the wife of Aragorn, the heir to the thrones of Gondor and Arnor.
Although the name Arwen itself does not have a recorded history prior to Tolkien's works, it has since gained popularity and been adopted by many readers and fans of the fantasy genre. Tolkien's creation of the Sindarin language and the names within it have greatly influenced the development of constructed languages and naming conventions in speculative fiction.
The earliest recorded use of the name Arwen would be in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings novel, which was initially published in three volumes between 1954 and 1955. The character of Arwen is first introduced in the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring.
While the name Arwen is a fictional creation, it has been embraced by many individuals, particularly those with an affinity for Tolkien's works or an appreciation for unique and meaningful names. Some notable individuals named Arwen include:
1. Arwen Undomiel (born in the Third Age of Middle-earth), the Elf princess and character from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
2. Arwen Elys Dayton, an American author known for her young adult fantasy novels, such as "Seeker" and "Traveler".
3. Arwen Nicki, a Canadian actress known for her roles in television series like "Supernatural" and "The 100".
4. Arwen Curry, an American documentary filmmaker and director, known for her work on films like "Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin" and "Worlds of Ruppert".
5. Arwen Evenstar, the stage name of an American singer and songwriter who performs Celtic and fantasy-inspired music.
People
Arwen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arwen 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
Arwen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arwen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,080 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arwen 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 111,284 US residents.
Is Arwen a common name?
We classify Arwen as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,138 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arwen most popular?
The single biggest year for Arwen was 2023, when 179 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arwen is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arwen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,282 people with the name Arwen, or 0.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,881 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 Arwen 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 Arwen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arwen leans strongly female. 2,250 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 26 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Arwen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arwen is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.2%) and Two or More Races (8.8%). 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 Arwen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arwen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.3% (1,535 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 Arwen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arwen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arwen in the SSA data are female. 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 Arwen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arwen 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 Arwen 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 common is the name Arwen?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Arwen at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.