Ashton
From the Old English meaning "ash tree town".
Name Census estimates that about 103,669 living Americans carry the first name Ashton. It sits at #188 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Ashton today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ashton births was 2004 (5,847 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ashton. 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 Ashton with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
104K
~ 1 in 3,306 Americans
Peak year
2004
5,847 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#188
Tracked since 1881
Census
Ashton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 82,424 people with the first name Ashton, which placed it at #642 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
#642
National first-name rank
People counted
82K
82,424 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
27.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ashton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashton is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (8.0%). 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 Ashton 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 Ashton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.5% · 54,777
- Black or African American16.1% · 13,279
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 6,583
- Two or more races6.4% · 5,270
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 1,598
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 917
Gender
Gender distribution for Ashton
Ashton leans heavily male at 81.5% of total registrations, but 19,574 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ashton as a male name
- Ranked #188 in 2024
- 1,976 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (5,436 births)
Ashton as a female name
- Ranked #1,760 in 2024
- 114 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (1,027 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ashton on both sides of the split. Of the 82,425 people counted with this name, 65,183 were male (79.1%) and 17,242 were female (20.9%).
Popularity
Ashton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ashton from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 37,228 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Ashton remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ashton 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 Ashton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ashtons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Ashton, while Vermont, Rhode Island, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,001 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ashton
The name Ashton originates from an English surname, derived from a place name meaning "ash tree town" or "settlement where ash trees grow." Its roots can be traced back to the Old English words "æsc" (ash tree) and "tun" (enclosure or town). The name's earliest recorded use dates back to the 13th century.
Ashton has been a popular name throughout English history, particularly in the northern regions of England where the ash tree was abundant. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir Thomas Ashton, a 14th-century English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War against France.
During the Tudor period, the name gained prominence with Sir Ralph Ashton, a 16th-century English politician and member of Parliament. He played a significant role in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation era.
In the 17th century, the name Ashton was associated with the English Civil War. Reverend Ralph Ashton, a Puritan minister, was a prominent supporter of the Parliamentarian cause and an influential figure in the conflict between the Royalists and Parliamentarians.
William Ashton, born in 1647, was a notable English mathematician and astrologer. He made contributions to the fields of astronomy and navigation, publishing works on celestial mechanics and the construction of nautical instruments.
Moving into the 19th century, John Ashton was a renowned English author and antiquarian. Born in 1834, he wrote extensively on English folklore, customs, and traditions, preserving valuable insights into the cultural heritage of his time.
These are just a few examples of the individuals who have borne the name Ashton throughout history, highlighting its enduring presence and the diverse backgrounds of those who have carried it forward across the centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ashton
People
Ashton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ashton 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
Ashton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ashton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103,669 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ashton 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 3,306 US residents.
Is Ashton a common name?
We classify Ashton as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 106,021 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ashton most popular?
The single biggest year for Ashton was 2004, when 5,847 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ashton is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ashton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 82,424 people with the name Ashton, or 27.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #642 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 Ashton 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 Ashton?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ashton on both sides of the split. Of the 82,425 people counted with this name, 65,183 were male (79.1%) and 17,242 were female (20.9%). 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 Ashton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashton is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (8.0%). 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 Ashton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ashton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (54,777 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 Ashton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ashton a male name?
Yes, 81.5% of people registered as Ashton 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 Ashton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ashton 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 Ashton 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 Ashton?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Ashton on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.