Foy
An English surname derived from a Norman French place name referring to beech trees.
Name Census estimates that about 659 living Americans carry the first name Foy. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Foy today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Foy births was 1921 (81 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Foy. 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 Foy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Foy is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Foys were born before 1963.
People living today
659
~ 1 in 520,113 Americans
Peak year
1921
81 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
2005 SSA rank
#5,565
Tracked since 1889
Census
Foy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 824 people with the first name Foy, which placed it at #14,328 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
#14,328
National first-name rank
People counted
824
824 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Foy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Foy is White at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Foy 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 Foy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.2% · 702
- Black or African American8.4% · 69
- Two or more races2.5% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Foy
Foy leans heavily male at 83.4% of total registrations, but 421 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Foy as a male name
- Ranked #10,528 in 2005
- 6 male births in 2005
- Peak: 1921 (68 births)
Foy as a female name
- Ranked #5,565 in 1950
- 5 female births in 1950
- Peak: 1912 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Foy leans strongly male. 706 people counted with this name were male (86.2%), compared with 113 female bearers (13.8%).
Popularity
Foy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Foy from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 649 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Foy 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 Foy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Foys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Foy, while Virginia, Florida, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 133 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Foy
The name Foy originates from the Old French word "fei", meaning faith or belief. It has its roots in the Latin word "fides", which also means faith or trust. The name Foy was commonly used in medieval France and England during the 12th and 13th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Foy can be found in the Domesday Book, a great survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Foy de Montfort", referring to a Norman nobleman who held lands in Warwickshire.
In the 12th century, Foy de Lusignan was a French nobleman and crusader who participated in the Third Crusade. He was captured by Saladin's forces during the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and later ransomed.
Saint Foy (also known as St. Faith or St. Fides) was a young Christian girl who was martyred in the 3rd or 4th century during the Diocletianic Persecution. She was widely venerated in medieval Europe, and several churches and monasteries were dedicated to her.
In the 15th century, Foy de la Neuville was a French military commander who fought for the Burgundian faction during the latter stages of the Hundred Years' War. He was present at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
Another notable figure with the name Foy was Foy Vaillant, a French goldsmith and sculptor who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He is best known for his intricate gold and silver vessels, which are now housed in various museums around the world.
The name Foy was not as widely used after the 17th century, but it continued to appear occasionally throughout history. For example, Foy Codrington was a British naval officer who served during the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
People
Foy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Foy 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
Foy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Foy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 659 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Foy 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 520,113 US residents.
Is Foy a common name?
We classify Foy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,533 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Foy most popular?
The single biggest year for Foy was 1921, when 81 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Foy is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Foy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 824 people with the name Foy, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,328 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 Foy 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 Foy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Foy leans strongly male. 706 people counted with this name were male (86.2%), compared with 113 female bearers (13.8%). 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 Foy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Foy is White at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Foy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Foy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.2% (702 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 Foy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Foy a male name?
Yes, 83.4% of people registered as Foy 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 Foy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Foy 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 Foy 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 common is the name Foy?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.