Graham
Of English origin, meaning "gravelly homestead" or "gravelly meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 54,164 living Americans carry the first name Graham. It sits at #129 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Graham today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Graham births was 2024 (2,800 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Graham. 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 Graham with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Graham is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 222 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
54K
~ 1 in 6,328 Americans
Peak year
2024
2,800 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#129
Tracked since 1881
Census
Graham in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 44,933 people with the first name Graham, which placed it at #969 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
#969
National first-name rank
People counted
45K
44,933 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
14.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Graham
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Graham is White at 90.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.9%) and Hispanic (2.7%). 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 Graham 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 Graham at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.9% · 40,852
- Two or more races3.9% · 1,765
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 1,222
- Black or African American1.4% · 650
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 331
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 113
Gender
Gender distribution for Graham
Out of the 58,681 babies given the name Graham since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Graham as a male name
- Ranked #129 in 2024
- 2,789 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (2,789 births)
Graham as a female name
- Ranked #9,111 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Graham appears almost entirely male. Of the 44,924 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Graham: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Graham from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 19,329 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Graham remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Graham 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 Graham during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Grahams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Graham, while Hawaii, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,054 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Graham
The given name Graham has its origins in the ancient Brythonic Celtic language, spoken in what is now parts of Britain. It is derived from the elements "gra" meaning "gray" and "ham" meaning "homestead" or "settlement". The name likely emerged in the early medieval period, referring to someone who lived near a gray stone house or village.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Graham of Dalkeith, a Scottish nobleman who lived in the 12th century. He was a witness to several royal charters during the reign of King William the Lion of Scotland. The Clan Graham, an ancient Scottish clan, takes its name from this early Graham line.
In the 13th century, Sir John Graham was a prominent figure in the Wars of Scottish Independence, fighting alongside William Wallace and Robert the Bruce against English rule. He was instrumental in the victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and was later made Lord Graham.
The name Graham gained wider recognition in the 15th century with the rise of the House of Graham, a powerful noble family in Scotland. Patrick Graham, 1st Lord Graham (c.1445-1513), was a trusted advisor to King James IV of Scotland and played a key role in the Scottish Renaissance.
A notable bearer of the name in later centuries was James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612-1650), a Scottish nobleman and military leader who fought for the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. He was executed by the Covenanters in 1650 for his loyalty to King Charles I.
In the 18th century, John Graham of Claverhouse (1648-1689), better known as "Bonnie Dundee", was a Scottish soldier and professional officer who fought for the House of Stuart during the Jacobite risings. He was killed at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, becoming a romantic figure in Scottish folklore.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Graham
People
Graham + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Graham as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Graham: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Graham?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 54,164 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Graham 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 6,328 US residents.
Is Graham a common name?
We classify Graham as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 58,681 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Graham most popular?
The single biggest year for Graham was 2024, when 2,800 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Graham is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Graham in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 44,933 people with the name Graham, or 14.88 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #969 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 Graham 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 Graham?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Graham appears almost entirely male. Of the 44,924 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Graham?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Graham is White at 90.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.9%) and Hispanic (2.7%). 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 Graham most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Graham in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.9% (40,852 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 Graham in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Graham a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Graham 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 Graham still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Graham 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 Graham 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 Graham as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.