Crosby
From an English surname meaning "from the village with a cross by the brook".
Name Census estimates that about 5,996 living Americans carry the first name Crosby. It is a predominantly male name (90.8% of registrations). The average person named Crosby today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Crosby births was 2015 (503 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Crosby. 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 Crosby with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Crosby is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
6.0K
~ 1 in 57,164 Americans
Peak year
2015
503 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,198
Tracked since 1912
Census
Crosby in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,719 people with the first name Crosby, which placed it at #4,091 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
#4,091
National first-name rank
People counted
4.7K
4,719 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Crosby
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Crosby is White at 87.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.4%) and Two or More Races (4.4%). 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 Crosby 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 Crosby at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.4% · 4,123
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 209
- Two or more races4.4% · 206
- Black or African American3.1% · 146
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Crosby
Crosby leans heavily male at 90.8% of total registrations, but 577 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Crosby as a male name
- Ranked #1,198 in 2024
- 170 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (484 births)
Crosby as a female name
- Ranked #3,825 in 2024
- 39 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (43 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Crosby leans strongly male. 4,277 people counted with this name were male (90.6%), compared with 446 female bearers (9.4%).
Popularity
Crosby: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Crosby from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 3,865 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Crosby remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Crosby 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 Crosby during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Crosbys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. Minnesota, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Crosby, while Nevada, Montana, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 105 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Crosby
The given name Crosby has its origins rooted in the Old Norse language. It is derived from the Old Norse words "kross" meaning "cross" and "by" meaning "village" or "settlement". The combined meaning of these words suggests that the name Crosby was originally used to identify someone who lived near a cross or in a village with a prominent cross.
The earliest recorded use of the name Crosby dates back to the 11th century in England, where it was used as a surname for people hailing from places named Crosby. The name gained popularity during the medieval period and was often given to children born in or around these settlements.
One of the earliest documented individuals with the name Crosby was Ranulf de Crosby, a knight who lived in the 13th century and was recorded as a witness in a legal document from 1246. Another notable figure was John Crosby, a wealthy merchant and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1471.
In the 16th century, the name was associated with Sir John Crosby, an English landowner and Member of Parliament who lived from 1508 to 1576. He was known for his involvement in the dissolution of monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII.
During the 17th century, the name Crosby gained prominence with the birth of Ebenezer Crosby in 1673. He was a renowned Puritan minister and author who played a significant role in the Great Awakening religious movement in colonial America.
Another notable bearer of the name was Fanny Crosby, a renowned American writer and hymnist who lived from 1820 to 1915. Despite being blind from infancy, she wrote over 8,000 hymns and was a prominent figure in the Methodist church.
While the name Crosby has its roots in Old Norse and was originally a surname, it has been widely adopted as a given name across various cultures and regions over the centuries. Its enduring presence in history is a testament to its unique origins and the stories of those who carried it through time.
People
Crosby + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Crosby 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
Crosby: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Crosby?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,996 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Crosby 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 57,164 US residents.
Is Crosby a common name?
We classify Crosby as "Rare". It ranks above 96.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,291 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Crosby most popular?
The single biggest year for Crosby was 2015, when 503 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Crosby is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Crosby in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,719 people with the name Crosby, or 1.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,091 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 Crosby 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 Crosby?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Crosby leans strongly male. 4,277 people counted with this name were male (90.6%), compared with 446 female bearers (9.4%). 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 Crosby?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Crosby is White at 87.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.4%) and Two or More Races (4.4%). 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 Crosby most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Crosby in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.4% (4,123 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 Crosby in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Crosby a male name?
Yes, 90.8% of people registered as Crosby 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 Crosby still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Crosby 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 Crosby 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 have Crosby as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.