Chuck
A diminutive of the English name Charles, meaning manly or virile.
Name Census estimates that about 13,835 living Americans carry the first name Chuck. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Chuck today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chuck births was 1961 (1,285 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chuck. 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
14K
~ 1 in 24,774 Americans
Peak year
1961
1,285 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,075
Tracked since 1914
Census
Chuck in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,417 people with the first name Chuck, which placed it at #1,739 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
#1,739
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,417 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chuck
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chuck is White at 82.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.4%) and Black (5.3%). 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 Chuck 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 Chuck at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.8% · 14,429
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 947
- Black or African American5.3% · 927
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 508
- Two or more races2.5% · 430
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 176
Popularity
Chuck: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chuck from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 7,615 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chuck 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 Chuck during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chucks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Chuck, while Maine, Nevada, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 318 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Chuck
The name Chuck is a diminutive form of the English name Charles, which derives from the Old English Cearl or the West Germanic Karl, meaning "man" or "freeman". The name Charles traces its roots back to the 8th century Frankish king Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, who ruled over a vast empire that encompassed much of Western and Central Europe. The name became widely popular across Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods.
In its diminutive form, Chuck emerged as a nickname for Charles in the late 19th century, particularly in the United States. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Chuck can be found in the writings of American author Mark Twain, who referred to a character named Chuck Quinby in his novel The American Claimant, published in 1892.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Chuck. One of the most famous was Chuck Yeager, an American aviator and Air Force officer born in 1923, who became the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight in 1947. Another prominent Chuck was Chuck Berry, the legendary American musician and singer-songwriter born in 1926, often referred to as the "Father of Rock and Roll" for his pioneering contributions to the genre.
In the world of sports, Chuck Klein, a baseball player born in 1904, was a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, renowned for his exceptional batting skills during his time with the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1930s. Chuck Bednarik, born in 1925, was a renowned American football player and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, known for his tenacity and versatility on the field.
The name also has religious significance, as Chuck Colson, born in 1931, was a prominent American evangelical Christian leader and special counsel to President Richard Nixon, who later founded the non-profit organization Prison Fellowship after his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Chuck
People
Chuck + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chuck 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
Chuck: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chuck?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,835 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chuck 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 24,774 US residents.
Is Chuck a common name?
We classify Chuck as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,864 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chuck most popular?
The single biggest year for Chuck was 1961, when 1,285 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chuck is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chuck in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,417 people with the name Chuck, or 5.77 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,739 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 Chuck 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 Chuck?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chuck appears almost entirely male. Of the 17,416 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Chuck?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chuck is White at 82.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.4%) and Black (5.3%). 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 Chuck most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Chuck in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.8% (14,429 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 Chuck in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chuck a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Chuck 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 Chuck still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chuck 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 Chuck 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 Chuck?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.