Forest
Symbolic of a densely wooded area, suggestive of nature and tranquility.
Name Census estimates that about 9,502 living Americans carry the first name Forest. It is a predominantly male name (96.8% of registrations). The average person named Forest today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Forest births was 2022 (391 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Forest. 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 Forest with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Forest is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 580 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
9.5K
~ 1 in 36,072 Americans
Peak year
2022
391 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#724
Tracked since 1880
Census
Forest in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,658 people with the first name Forest, which placed it at #2,946 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
#2,946
National first-name rank
People counted
7.7K
7,658 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Forest
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Forest is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (7.5%) and Two or More Races (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 Forest 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 Forest at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.9% · 6,120
- Black or African American7.5% · 577
- Two or more races5.3% · 406
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 329
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 135
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 91
Gender
Gender distribution for Forest
Forest leans heavily male at 96.8% of total registrations, but 580 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Forest as a male name
- Ranked #724 in 2024
- 361 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (375 births)
Forest as a female name
- Ranked #6,221 in 2024
- 19 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (27 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Forest leans strongly male. 7,370 people counted with this name were male (96.2%), compared with 293 female bearers (3.8%).
Popularity
Forest: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Forest 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 2,650 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Forest remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Forest 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 Forest during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Forests live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. California, Ohio, Texas recorded the most babies named Forest, while Maryland, New Jersey, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 282 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Forest
The name Forest is an English word name derived from the Old French word "forest," which means "woods" or "wooded area." The name's origins can be traced back to ancient Roman times, when the Latin word "forestis" referred to an area of land kept for hunting and other outdoor activities.
During the Middle Ages, the name Forest became associated with the concept of the wilderness, untamed nature, and the great outdoors. It was often used to describe areas of land that were densely forested and relatively untouched by human civilization. As such, the name Forest carried connotations of ruggedness, freedom, and a connection to the natural world.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Forest can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and property holdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. In this historic document, several places and estates were listed under the name "Forest" or variations thereof, indicating the prevalence of the name in the region.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Forest. One of the earliest was Forest of Evesham (c. 1150 - c. 1215), an English monk and chronicler who wrote extensively about the life of St. Thomas Becket. Another was Forest Hay (c. 1585 - 1662), an English poet and playwright who was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.
In more recent times, Forest Whitaker (born 1961) is an American actor and director who has won numerous accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Idi Amin in the 2006 film "The Last King of Scotland." Forest Evashevski (1918 - 2009) was an American football player and coach who led the University of Iowa's football team to two Rose Bowl victories.
Other notable individuals with the first name Forest include Forest Halvorsen (1924 - 2022), an American aviator known as the "Candy Bomber" for dropping candy to children during the Berlin Airlift, and Forest Tendrich (1918 - 1995), an American artist and illustrator renowned for his work in the Golden Age of comic books.
While the name Forest has its roots in ancient languages and traditions, it has endured through the centuries as a name that evokes a sense of connection to nature, wilderness, and the great outdoors. Its historical associations with untamed landscapes and ruggedness have made it a popular choice for parents seeking a unique and meaningful name for their children.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Forest
People
Forest + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Forest 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
Forest: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Forest?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,502 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Forest 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 36,072 US residents.
Is Forest a common name?
We classify Forest as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,013 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Forest most popular?
The single biggest year for Forest was 2022, when 391 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Forest is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Forest in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,658 people with the name Forest, or 2.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,946 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 Forest 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 Forest?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Forest leans strongly male. 7,370 people counted with this name were male (96.2%), compared with 293 female bearers (3.8%). 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 Forest?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Forest is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (7.5%) and Two or More Races (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 Forest most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Forest in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.9% (6,120 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 Forest in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Forest a male name?
Yes, 96.8% of people registered as Forest 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 Forest still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Forest 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 Forest 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 Forest?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Forest at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.