Curtis
A masculine name of Old French origin meaning "courteous" or "polite".
Name Census estimates that about 185,094 living Americans carry the first name Curtis. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Curtis today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Curtis births was 1962 (5,603 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Curtis. 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 Curtis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Curtis is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,322 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Curtis have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
185K
~ 1 in 1,852 Americans
Peak year
1962
5,603 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2024 SSA rank
#927
Tracked since 1880
Census
Curtis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 159,668 people with the first name Curtis, which placed it at #350 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
#350
National first-name rank
People counted
160K
159,668 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
52.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Curtis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Curtis is White at 65.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.9%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Curtis 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 Curtis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.2% · 104,109
- Black or African American26.9% · 42,874
- Two or more races3.5% · 5,517
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 3,402
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 2,073
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 1,693
Gender
Gender distribution for Curtis
Out of the 262,636 babies given the name Curtis since 1880, 99.1% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Curtis as a male name
- Ranked #927 in 2024
- 249 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1962 (5,570 births)
Curtis as a female name
- Ranked #15,581 in 2000
- 5 female births in 2000
- Peak: 1957 (52 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Curtis appears almost entirely male. Of the 159,667 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Curtis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Curtis from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 47,554 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
Curtis 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 Curtis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Curtis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Curtis, while Vermont, Rhode Island, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,001 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Curtis
The name Curtis is an English masculine given name of Old French origin. It derives from the Old French word "courtois", which means "courtly", "polite", or "well-bred". This word itself comes from the Latin word "curtis", meaning "court" or "courtyard".
The name Curtis first appeared in medieval England during the Norman conquest of the 11th century. It was initially used as a descriptive surname for someone who was associated with a court or who exhibited courtly manners. Over time, it transitioned into use as a masculine given name.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Curtis was Curtis de Peitevin, a Norman knight who lived in the late 11th century. He is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a record of landholders commissioned by William the Conqueror.
Another notable historical figure with the name Curtis was Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999), an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and one of the most influential figures in soul, funk, and rhythm and blues music. He was a highly influential artist and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
Curtis LeMay (1906-1990) was a highly decorated American general who played a crucial role in the strategic bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan during World War II. He later served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.
Curtis Bernhardt (1899-1981) was a German-American film director and producer who worked in both Hollywood and Europe. Some of his notable films include "Mildred Pierce" (1945) and "The Bribe" (1949).
Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999), an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and one of the most influential figures in soul, funk, and rhythm and blues music, is another prominent bearer of the name. He was a highly influential artist and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
Curtis Hanson (1945-2016) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the critically acclaimed films "L.A. Confidential" (1997), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and "Wonder Boys" (2000).
Notable bearers
Famous people named Curtis
People
Curtis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Curtis 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
Curtis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Curtis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 185,094 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Curtis 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 1,852 US residents.
Is Curtis a common name?
We classify Curtis as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 262,636 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Curtis most popular?
The single biggest year for Curtis was 1962, when 5,603 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Curtis is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Curtis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 159,668 people with the name Curtis, or 52.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #350 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 Curtis 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 Curtis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Curtis appears almost entirely male. Of the 159,667 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Curtis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Curtis is White at 65.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.9%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Curtis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Curtis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.2% (104,109 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 Curtis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Curtis a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Curtis 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 Curtis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Curtis 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 Curtis 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 share the name Curtis?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.