Chaston
Derived from the Old English surname "Chastonville" referring to an estate or village.
Name Census estimates that about 571 living Americans carry the first name Chaston. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Chaston today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chaston births was 1992 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chaston. 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
571
~ 1 in 600,270 Americans
Peak year
1992
23 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,889
Tracked since 1975
Census
Chaston in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 486 people with the first name Chaston, which placed it at #21,031 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
#21,031
National first-name rank
People counted
486
486 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chaston
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chaston is White at 55.6%. The next largest groups are Black (29.4%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Chaston 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 Chaston at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.6% · 270
- Black or African American29.4% · 143
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 27
- Two or more races5.3% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 8
Popularity
Chaston: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chaston from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 163 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Chaston remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chaston 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 Chaston during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chastons live
Origin
Meaning and history of Chaston
The name Chaston has its origins in Middle English, derived from the Old English word "castan" or "cæstan," which means "to throw" or "to cast." This name likely originated in England during the medieval period, sometime between the 11th and 15th centuries.
In its earliest forms, Chaston was likely a surname given to individuals who worked as slingers or throwers, perhaps in military or hunting contexts. The name may have also been associated with specific occupations or trades that involved casting or throwing, such as blacksmiths or stonemasons.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Chaston can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of landowners and tenants in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry "Castun" is listed as a landowner in the county of Wiltshire.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Chaston appeared in various historical records and documents, though it was not particularly common. One notable bearer of the name was Sir Chaston de Bracy, a knight mentioned in Sir Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe," set in the late 12th century during the reign of King Richard I.
In the 16th century, the name Chaston was borne by John Chaston, an English clergyman and scholar who served as the rector of Woodstock in Oxfordshire. He was born around 1520 and is known for his translation of the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
During the 17th century, Chaston was the given name of Chaston Calthrop, an English soldier and military engineer who served in the English Civil War. He was born in 1612 and is best known for his work on fortifications and siege tactics.
Another notable figure with the name Chaston was Chaston Bury, an English artist and engraver active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born in 1770 and is renowned for his intricate engravings of landscapes and architectural subjects.
While the name Chaston has not been particularly common throughout history, it has maintained a presence in various parts of England and has been borne by individuals from diverse backgrounds and professions.
People
Chaston + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chaston as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Chaston: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chaston?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 571 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chaston 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 600,270 US residents.
Is Chaston a common name?
We classify Chaston as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 582 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chaston most popular?
The single biggest year for Chaston was 1992, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chaston is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chaston in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 486 people with the name Chaston, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,031 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 Chaston 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 Chaston?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chaston leans strongly male. 467 people counted with this name were male (95.7%), compared with 21 female bearers (4.3%). 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 Chaston?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chaston is White at 55.6%. The next largest groups are Black (29.4%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Chaston most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Chaston in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.6% (270 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 Chaston in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chaston a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Chaston 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 Chaston still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chaston 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 Chaston 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 Chaston?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.