Becket
A masculine name derived from a diminutive form of the name Benedict.
Name Census estimates that about 554 living Americans carry the first name Becket. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Becket today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Becket births was 2016 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Becket. 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
554
~ 1 in 618,690 Americans
Peak year
2016
41 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,325
Tracked since 1969
Census
Becket in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 487 people with the first name Becket, which placed it at #20,996 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
#20,996
National first-name rank
People counted
487
487 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Becket
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Becket is White at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.8%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Becket 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 Becket at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.4% · 416
- Two or more races6.8% · 33
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 30
- Black or African American1.2% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Becket: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Becket from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 282 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Becket remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Becket 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 Becket during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Beckets live
Origin
Meaning and history of Becket
The name Becket has its origins in the Norman French language, tracing back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "beocc" meaning "beech tree" and "haecc" meaning "gate or hedge." The earliest recorded spelling of the name was "Bechet" in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a comprehensive survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror.
One of the most famous historical figures associated with the name Becket is Thomas Becket (1118-1170), the Archbishop of Canterbury who was assassinated on the orders of King Henry II. Becket's martyrdom and subsequent canonization as a saint made his name widely known throughout Christendom during the Middle Ages.
Another notable figure was Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), the Irish novelist, playwright, and poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. His works, including "Waiting for Godot" and "Endgame," explored existential themes and the absurdity of human existence.
In the realm of literature, the name Becket appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales," written in the late 14th century. One of the pilgrims in the famous collection of stories is named "Bekkit," which is likely a variant spelling of the name.
During the English Renaissance, the name Becket was associated with the Reformation and the conflict between King Henry VIII and the Catholic Church. John Becket (1511-1537) was a Catholic martyr who was executed for refusing to acknowledge the king's supremacy over the Church.
In the field of sports, Walter Beckett (1914-1996) was a Canadian ice hockey player who played for the New York Rangers and won the Stanley Cup in 1940. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.
People
Becket + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Becket as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Becket: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Becket?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 554 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Becket 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 618,690 US residents.
Is Becket a common name?
We classify Becket as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 559 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Becket most popular?
The single biggest year for Becket was 2016, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Becket is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Becket in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 487 people with the name Becket, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,996 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 Becket 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 Becket?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Becket leans strongly male. 461 people counted with this name were male (93.9%), compared with 30 female bearers (6.1%). 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 Becket?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Becket is White at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.8%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Becket most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Becket in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.4% (416 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 Becket in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Becket a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Becket 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 Becket still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Becket 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 Becket 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 Americans are named Becket?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.