Filbert
A masculine name from the Old German meaning "lively counsel".
Name Census estimates that about 224 living Americans carry the first name Filbert. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Filbert today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Filbert births was 1959 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Filbert. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Filbert is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Filberts were born before 1969.
People living today
224
~ 1 in 1,530,153 Americans
Peak year
1959
14 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2005 SSA rank
#10,521
Tracked since 1915
Census
Filbert in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 350 people with the first name Filbert, which placed it at #26,543 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
#26,543
National first-name rank
People counted
350
350 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Filbert
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Filbert is Hispanic at 42.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.9%). 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 Filbert 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 Filbert at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.0% · 147
- Black or African American19.4% · 68
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.9% · 59
- White14.3% · 50
- American Indian and Alaska Native6.0% · 21
- Two or more races1.4% · 5
Popularity
Filbert: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Filbert from the 1910s through to the 2000s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 90 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Filbert 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 Filbert during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Filberts live
Origin
Meaning and history of Filbert
The name Filbert is of German origin, derived from the Old High German words "fil," meaning "many," and "berht," meaning "bright" or "illustrious." It is believed to have emerged as a given name during the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Filbert can be found in medieval German documents and records. It was initially a masculine name, though its usage as a feminine name has also been documented in some regions.
One of the earliest known historical figures bearing the name Filbert was Filbert of Haspengouw, a Frankish nobleman who lived in the 9th century. He was a prominent figure in the court of Charlemagne and played a role in the expansion of the Carolingian Empire.
Another notable individual with the name Filbert was Filbert of Hermanville, a 12th-century Norman knight who participated in the Third Crusade. He was recorded as having fought alongside King Richard I of England during the siege of Acre in 1191.
In the 14th century, Filbert of Naillac served as the 25th Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1334 to 1349. He played a crucial role in defending the order against accusations of heresy and helped oversee its dissolution.
During the Renaissance period, Filbert Hertrich (1475-1548) was a German mathematician and astronomer known for his contributions to the field of trigonometry. He developed the "Filbert's table," which facilitated calculations involving sines and cosines.
In the 18th century, Filbert Bayard (1722-1805) was a prominent American lawyer and politician from Delaware. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and played a role in the drafting of the Articles of Confederation.
While the name Filbert has waned in popularity in recent times, it has maintained a presence throughout history, particularly in Germanic regions and cultures. Its origins and meaning reflect the cultural and linguistic influences that have shaped the evolution of names over the centuries.
People
Filbert + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Filbert as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Filbert: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Filbert?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 224 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Filbert 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 1,530,153 US residents.
Is Filbert a common name?
We classify Filbert as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 452 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Filbert most popular?
The single biggest year for Filbert was 1959, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Filbert is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Filbert in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 350 people with the name Filbert, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,543 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 Filbert 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 Filbert?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Filbert leans strongly male. 345 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 5 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Filbert?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Filbert is Hispanic at 42.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.9%). 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 Filbert most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Filbert in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.0% (147 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 Filbert in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Filbert a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Filbert 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 Filbert still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Filbert 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 Filbert 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 Filbert as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.