Halbert
A German masculine name derived from the Old German elements "haal" meaning wholesome and "berht" meaning bright or brilliant.
Name Census estimates that about 499 living Americans carry the first name Halbert. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Halbert today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Halbert births was 1923 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Halbert. 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 Halbert is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Halberts were born before 1970.
People living today
499
~ 1 in 686,882 Americans
Peak year
1923
29 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1995 SSA rank
#9,357
Tracked since 1881
Census
Halbert in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 515 people with the first name Halbert, which placed it at #20,162 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
#20,162
National first-name rank
People counted
515
515 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Halbert
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halbert is White at 50.7%. The next largest groups are Black (30.5%) and Hispanic (8.3%). 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 Halbert 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 Halbert at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.7% · 261
- Black or African American30.5% · 157
- Hispanic or Latino8.3% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.1% · 16
- Two or more races0.8% · 4
Popularity
Halbert: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Halbert from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 214 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
Halbert 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 Halbert during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Halberts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Mississippi recorded the most babies named Halbert, while Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Halbert
The name Halbert originates from the Germanic language and is derived from the root words "hal" meaning "healthy" and "berht" meaning "bright" or "famous." It dates back to the Medieval period and was initially used in regions such as Germany, France, and England.
One of the earliest known references to the name Halbert can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals documenting the history of the Anglo-Saxons from the 9th to the 12th centuries. The name is mentioned in an entry from the year 1066, describing a warrior who fought in the Norman Conquest of England.
The first recorded instance of the name Halbert belongs to Halbert of Bury St Edmunds, an English Benedictine monk and historian who lived from around 1135 to 1212. He is known for his work "Imaginationes de Sancto Edmundo," a collection of stories about the life and miracles of St. Edmund, the patron saint of England.
In the 13th century, Halbert de Guildford, born around 1245, was a prominent English landowner and knight who served under King Edward I. He played a significant role in the Welsh Wars and the Scottish Wars of Independence.
During the Renaissance period, Halbert Goffey (1531-1615) was a renowned Dutch painter known for his portraits and religious works. His art can be found in various museums and galleries across Europe.
In the 17th century, Halbert Greaves (1611-1676) was an English mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the study of optics and the development of telescopes. He served as the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Halbert. While the name has its roots in the Germanic language, it has been used across various cultures and regions over the centuries, reflecting its enduring appeal and historical significance.
People
Halbert + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Halbert as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Halbert: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Halbert?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 499 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Halbert 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 686,882 US residents.
Is Halbert a common name?
We classify Halbert as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,137 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Halbert most popular?
The single biggest year for Halbert was 1923, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Halbert is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Halbert in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 515 people with the name Halbert, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,162 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 Halbert 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 Halbert?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halbert appears almost entirely male. Of the 517 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Halbert?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halbert is White at 50.7%. The next largest groups are Black (30.5%) and Hispanic (8.3%). 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 Halbert most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Halbert in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.7% (261 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 Halbert in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Halbert a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Halbert 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 Halbert still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Halbert 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 Halbert 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 Halbert as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.