Happiness
An English virtue name derived from the state of well-being and contentment.
Name Census estimates that about 111 living Americans carry the first name Happiness. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Happiness today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Happiness births was 2019 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Happiness. 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 Happiness with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
111
~ 1 in 3,087,877 Americans
Peak year
2019
14 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,093
Tracked since 2013
Census
Happiness in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 298 people with the first name Happiness, which placed it at #29,601 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
#29,601
National first-name rank
People counted
298
298 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
89.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Happiness
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Happiness is Black at 89.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.0%) and White (3.7%). 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 Happiness 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 Happiness at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American89.3% · 266
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 12
- White3.7% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 6
- Two or more races1.0% · 3
Popularity
Happiness: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Happiness from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 59 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Happiness 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 Happiness during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Happiness
The name Happiness is a relatively modern word derived from the English language. It is a noun that has been adopted as a given name, likely in the 20th century, as a representation of the abstract concept of feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.
While the word "happiness" has been used in English literature since the late 16th century, its use as a personal name is a more recent phenomenon. The earliest recorded use of Happiness as a first name dates back to the late 19th century, though it was still quite rare at that time.
One of the earliest documented individuals with the name Happiness was Happiness Browning, born in 1876 in South Carolina, United States. There are records of a Happiness Martin, born in 1890 in Georgia, USA, and a Happiness Steele, born in 1892 in Alabama, USA.
As the name gained popularity in the 20th century, particularly in the United States, it was sometimes given to children as a symbolic representation of the hopes and aspirations of their parents. Notable individuals with the name include Happiness Isbell (1907-1995), an American gospel singer and songwriter, and Happiness Tchokwe (born 1981), a Mozambican footballer.
The name Happiness was also adopted by some members of the counterculture movement in the 1960s and 1970s, as a reflection of their ideals and values. One example is Happiness Lee Abbott (born 1965), an American singer and songwriter known for her work in the psychedelic trance genre.
While not a common name globally, Happiness has been used sporadically in various English-speaking regions, often as a reflection of the parents' desire for their child to experience a life filled with joy and contentment.
People
Happiness + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Happiness 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
Happiness: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Happiness?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 111 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Happiness 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 3,087,877 US residents.
Is Happiness a common name?
We classify Happiness as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 112 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Happiness most popular?
The single biggest year for Happiness was 2019, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Happiness is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Happiness in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 298 people with the name Happiness, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,601 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 Happiness 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 Happiness?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Happiness leans strongly female. 272 people counted with this name were female (92.8%), compared with 21 male bearers (7.2%). 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 Happiness?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Happiness is Black at 89.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.0%) and White (3.7%). 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 Happiness most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Happiness in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.3% (266 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 Happiness in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Happiness a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Happiness in the SSA data are female. 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 Happiness still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Happiness 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 Happiness 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 Happiness?
Find out how many people have the name Happiness on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.