Ascher
A masculine name of German origin meaning "ash tree".
Name Census estimates that about 491 living Americans carry the first name Ascher. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ascher today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ascher births was 2013 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ascher. 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.
People living today
491
~ 1 in 698,074 Americans
Peak year
2013
37 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,244
Tracked since 2004
Census
Ascher in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 424 people with the first name Ascher, which placed it at #23,170 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
#23,170
National first-name rank
People counted
424
424 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ascher
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ascher is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.8%) and Hispanic (9.7%). 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 Ascher 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 Ascher at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.7% · 287
- Two or more races10.8% · 46
- Hispanic or Latino9.7% · 41
- Black or African American7.1% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Popularity
Ascher: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ascher from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 284 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ascher remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ascher 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 Ascher during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aschers live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ascher
The name Ascher is of Hebrew origin and is believed to have derived from the biblical name Asher, which means "happy" or "blessed". It is one of the twelve tribes of Israel mentioned in the Old Testament.
The earliest recorded use of the name Ascher can be traced back to the Middle Ages, particularly in Jewish communities across Europe. It was a popular name among Ashkenazi Jews, who were descendants of the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine river in Germany.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Ascher was Ascher ben Yechiel, a 13th-century German rabbi and philosopher. He was born in Cologne, Germany, and is known for his work on Jewish religious law and ethics.
Another notable figure with the name Ascher was Ascher Meshulem ben Nathan, a 16th-century Jewish scholar and printer from Krakow, Poland. He was instrumental in the publication of several important Jewish texts, including the Talmud and other rabbinic works.
In the 17th century, Ascher Anshel ben Abraham, a Polish rabbi and Talmudic scholar, gained prominence for his contributions to Jewish law and his teachings on the Talmud. He lived in Krakow and was highly respected among his contemporaries.
During the 18th century, Ascher Lemlein, a German-Jewish scholar and author, became known for his works on Jewish liturgy and religious poetry. He was born in Lissa, Poland, and spent much of his life in Hamburg, Germany.
In more recent history, Ascher Hirsch Ginzberg, a 19th-century Russian-Jewish philosopher and author, made significant contributions to the study of Judaism and Jewish ethics. He was born in Velizh, Belarus, and is recognized for his works on the philosophy of Judaism and Jewish mysticism.
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who bore the name Ascher, which has its roots in the Hebrew language and biblical tradition.
People
Ascher + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ascher 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
Ascher: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ascher?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 491 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ascher 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 698,074 US residents.
Is Ascher a common name?
We classify Ascher as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 495 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ascher most popular?
The single biggest year for Ascher was 2013, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ascher is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ascher in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 424 people with the name Ascher, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,170 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 Ascher 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 Ascher?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ascher leans strongly male. 400 people counted with this name were male (93.7%), compared with 27 female bearers (6.3%). 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 Ascher?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ascher is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.8%) and Hispanic (9.7%). 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 Ascher most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ascher in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.7% (287 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 Ascher in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ascher a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ascher 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 Ascher still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ascher 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 Ascher 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 Ascher as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.