Graysen
A masculine name derived from the English surname, probably meaning "gray-haired" or "gray son".
Name Census estimates that about 4,992 living Americans carry the first name Graysen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Graysen today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Graysen births was 2016 (388 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Graysen. 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 Graysen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Graysen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.0K
~ 1 in 68,661 Americans
Peak year
2016
388 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,281
Tracked since 1989
Census
Graysen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,498 people with the first name Graysen, which placed it at #5,036 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
#5,036
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,498 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Graysen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Graysen is White at 75.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Two or More Races (8.1%). 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 Graysen 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 Graysen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.8% · 2,650
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 329
- Two or more races8.1% · 285
- Black or African American4.5% · 156
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 51
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 27
Gender
Gender distribution for Graysen
Graysen leans heavily male at 84.4% of total registrations, but 783 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Graysen as a male name
- Ranked #1,281 in 2024
- 153 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (354 births)
Graysen as a female name
- Ranked #6,001 in 2024
- 20 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (45 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Graysen leans strongly male. 2,867 people counted with this name were male (81.8%), compared with 637 female bearers (18.2%).
Popularity
Graysen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Graysen from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,909 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Graysen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Graysen 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 Graysen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Graysens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Graysen, while West Virginia, Maine, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 76 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Graysen
The name Graysen is a relatively modern English name, first appearing in the late 20th century. It is a variant spelling of the name Grayson, which is a surname derived from the Old English words "grise" and "sunu", meaning "gray son" or "son of the gray-haired one".
While the name Grayson has a long history as a surname, its use as a given name is more recent. The earliest recorded example of the name Grayson being used as a first name dates back to the late 16th century, when it was given to a child born in England in 1592. However, it remained quite rare until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it began to gain popularity as a first name.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Grayson was Grayson Perry, an English artist and cross-dresser born in 1960. Perry is known for his intricate ceramic works and tapestries, as well as his exploration of gender identity and societal norms.
Another prominent figure with the name Grayson was Grayson Hall, an American actress born in 1922 and best known for her roles in various soap operas and horror films, such as Night of the Iguana and Poltergeist III.
In the literary world, Grayson Bray Morris was an American writer and educator born in 1908, who published several books and served as a professor at various universities.
Grayson Kirk, born in 1903, was an American academic and president of Columbia University from 1953 to 1968, during a period of significant growth and change for the institution.
Grayson Leahy was an Australian rules footballer born in 1898, who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the early 20th century and was later inducted into the club's Hall of Fame.
While the name Grayson has a long history as a surname, the variant spelling Graysen is a more recent invention, likely emerging in the late 20th century as a unique twist on the traditional name. Its increasing popularity in recent years reflects a broader trend towards creative and distinctive baby names.
People
Graysen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Graysen 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
Graysen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Graysen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,992 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Graysen 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 68,661 US residents.
Is Graysen a common name?
We classify Graysen as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,035 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Graysen most popular?
The single biggest year for Graysen was 2016, when 388 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Graysen is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Graysen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,498 people with the name Graysen, or 1.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,036 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 Graysen 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 Graysen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Graysen leans strongly male. 2,867 people counted with this name were male (81.8%), compared with 637 female bearers (18.2%). 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 Graysen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Graysen is White at 75.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Two or More Races (8.1%). 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 Graysen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Graysen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.8% (2,650 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 Graysen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Graysen a male name?
Yes, 84.4% of people registered as Graysen 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 Graysen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Graysen 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 Graysen 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 are named Graysen?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Graysen at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.