Crawford
A given name derived from the English surname, meaning "crowed ford" or "ford by the cross road".
Name Census estimates that about 2,394 living Americans carry the first name Crawford. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Crawford today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Crawford births was 1924 (88 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Crawford. 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 Crawford with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 143,172 Americans
Peak year
1924
88 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,557
Tracked since 1880
Census
Crawford in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,116 people with the first name Crawford, which placed it at #7,265 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
#7,265
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,116 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Crawford
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Crawford is White at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Black (18.4%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Crawford 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 Crawford at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.1% · 1,590
- Black or African American18.4% · 389
- Two or more races2.9% · 62
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 38
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Crawford
Crawford leans heavily male at 99.0% of total registrations, but 48 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Crawford as a male name
- Ranked #2,557 in 2024
- 52 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (88 births)
Crawford as a female name
- Ranked #12,407 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Crawford leans strongly male. 1,994 people counted with this name were male (94.4%), compared with 119 female bearers (5.6%).
Popularity
Crawford: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Crawford from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 643 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Crawford remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Crawford 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 Crawford during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Crawfords live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, Alabama recorded the most babies named Crawford, while New Jersey, Arkansas, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 79 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Crawford
The name Crawford originated from the Gaelic language spoken in Scotland and Ireland. It is derived from the elements "cru," meaning "bloody," and "ford," referring to a river crossing or ford. The name likely emerged during the medieval period in the regions where Gaelic was spoken.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Crawford can be found in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient Irish chronicle dating back to the 15th century. The chronicle mentions a person named Crunford, which is believed to be an early spelling variation of Crawford.
During the Middle Ages, the name Crawford was associated with notable figures in Scottish and Irish history. One such individual was Sir Reginald Crawford, a Scottish knight who fought alongside King Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the early 14th century.
In the 16th century, a prominent bearer of the name was David Crawford (c. 1525-1600), a Scottish Protestant reformer and educator who helped establish the first Scottish university in Aberdeen.
Another historical figure with the name Crawford was William Crawford (1676-1742), a Scottish-born American soldier and surveyor who played a significant role in the early exploration and settlement of the American colonies.
In the 19th century, Samuel Wylie Crawford (1829-1892) was a notable American Presbyterian minister and educator who served as the fourth president of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.
More recently, the name Crawford has been carried by individuals such as Joan Crawford (1904-1977), the iconic American actress who starred in numerous films during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and Cindy Crawford (born 1966), the supermodel and actress known for her successful modeling career and business ventures.
While the name Crawford has its roots in the Celtic languages of Scotland and Ireland, it has since spread and been adopted in various parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries. However, its origins can be traced back to the ancient Gaelic word elements that reflect the rugged terrain and river crossings of the regions where the name first emerged.
People
Crawford + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Crawford 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
Crawford: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Crawford?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,394 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Crawford 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 143,172 US residents.
Is Crawford a common name?
We classify Crawford as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,688 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Crawford most popular?
The single biggest year for Crawford was 1924, when 88 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Crawford is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Crawford in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,116 people with the name Crawford, or 0.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,265 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 Crawford 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 Crawford?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Crawford leans strongly male. 1,994 people counted with this name were male (94.4%), compared with 119 female bearers (5.6%). 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 Crawford?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Crawford is White at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Black (18.4%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Crawford most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Crawford in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.1% (1,590 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 Crawford in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Crawford a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Crawford 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 Crawford still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Crawford 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 Crawford 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 Crawford?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.