Che
A Spanish form of the Hebrew name Josue or Jesus meaning "Jehovah is salvation".
Name Census estimates that about 2,338 living Americans carry the first name Che. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Che today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Che births was 1974 (112 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Che. 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 Che with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 146,602 Americans
Peak year
1974
112 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,214
Tracked since 1968
Census
Che in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,691 people with the first name Che, which placed it at #6,076 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
#6,076
National first-name rank
People counted
2.7K
2,691 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
33.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Che
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Che is Black at 33.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.1%) and White (18.7%). 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 Che 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 Che at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American33.7% · 906
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.1% · 594
- White18.7% · 503
- Hispanic or Latino18.2% · 489
- Two or more races6.4% · 172
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 27
Gender
Gender distribution for Che
Che leans heavily male at 85.2% of total registrations, but 364 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Che as a male name
- Ranked #6,214 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1974 (94 births)
Che as a female name
- Ranked #17,333 in 2011
- 5 female births in 2011
- Peak: 1969 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Che on both sides of the split. Of the 2,686 people counted with this name, 2,055 were male (76.5%) and 631 were female (23.5%).
Popularity
Che: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Che from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 884 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Che 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 Che during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ches live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Che, while Maryland, Washington, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 74 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Che
The name Che is a Spanish language name derived from the Che people, an indigenous ethnic group from Argentina. The name has its origins in the Guarani language, spoken by the Che people and other indigenous groups in South America.
The word "che" in Guarani is believed to have been a greeting or an expression of affirmation, similar to "hello" or "yes" in English. It was likely adopted as a personal name by the Che people and later spread to other Spanish-speaking regions.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Che can be found in the chronicles of the Spanish conquistadors who explored and colonized parts of South America in the 16th and 17th centuries. These chronicles often referred to the indigenous inhabitants as "los Ches" or "the Ches."
The name gained widespread recognition in the 20th century due to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary and guerrilla leader who played a pivotal role in the Cuban Revolution. Che Guevara, born in 1928 and killed in 1967, became an iconic figure and a symbol of rebellion and resistance against oppression.
Other notable historical figures with the name Che include Che Qayum Khan, an Afghan military leader and governor in the late 18th century, and Che Kung-ming, a Chinese philosopher and poet from the 3rd century AD.
In literature, the name appears in the work of Gabriel García Márquez, the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author, who featured a character named Che Guevara in his novel "The Autumn of the Patriarch."
Another historical figure named Che was Che Ree, a Nez Perce leader and warrior who fought against the United States government during the Nez Perce War in the late 19th century.
These are just a few examples of the rich history and cultural significance associated with the name Che, which has its roots in indigenous South American cultures but has since gained global recognition through various historical figures and cultural influences.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Che
People
Che + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Che 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
Che: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Che?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,338 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Che 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 146,602 US residents.
Is Che a common name?
We classify Che as "Rare". It ranks above 94.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,458 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Che most popular?
The single biggest year for Che was 1974, when 112 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Che is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Che in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,691 people with the name Che, or 0.89 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,076 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 Che 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 Che?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Che on both sides of the split. Of the 2,686 people counted with this name, 2,055 were male (76.5%) and 631 were female (23.5%). 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 Che?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Che is Black at 33.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.1%) and White (18.7%). 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 Che most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Che in the 2020 Census, accounting for 33.7% (906 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 Che in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Che a male name?
Yes, 85.2% of people registered as Che 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 Che still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Che 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 Che 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 are called Che?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.