Haven
A restful and peaceful place of shelter or refuge.
Name Census estimates that about 25,136 living Americans carry the first name Haven. It sits at #201 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Haven today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Haven births was 2024 (1,639 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Haven. 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 Haven with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Haven started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Haven is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,636 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,639 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#201
Tracked since 1899
Census
Haven in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,827 people with the first name Haven, which placed it at #1,782 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
#1,782
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
16,827 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Haven
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Haven is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.7%) and Black (8.7%). 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 Haven 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 Haven at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.3% · 11,836
- Hispanic or Latino9.7% · 1,639
- Black or African American8.7% · 1,468
- Two or more races7.8% · 1,317
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 354
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 213
Gender
Gender distribution for Haven
Haven leans heavily female at 81.8% of total registrations, but 4,732 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Haven as a male name
- Ranked #1,484 in 2024
- 122 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (181 births)
Haven as a female name
- Ranked #201 in 2024
- 1,517 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (1,517 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Haven leans strongly female. 13,644 people counted with this name were female (81.1%), compared with 3,187 male bearers (18.9%).
Popularity
Haven: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Haven from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 10,195 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Haven remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Haven 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 Haven during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Havens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Haven, while Delaware, New Hampshire, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 443 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Haven
The name Haven is an English word derived from the Old English word "hæfen", which means a place of shelter or refuge. It has been used as a given name since the 19th century, both for males and females.
The earliest recorded use of Haven as a first name dates back to the late 1800s. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Haven Emerson, an American physician born in 1876 who specialized in public health and hygiene.
Another notable figure with the name Haven was Haven Parker, an American baseball player who played in the Major League Baseball from 1906 to 1916. He was born in 1879 and played for several teams, including the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.
In the literary world, Haven Gillespie was an American playwright and screenwriter born in 1888. He is best known for co-writing the screenplay for the classic film "The Human Comedy" in 1943, based on the novel by William Saroyan.
In more recent times, Haven Denney was an American figure skater who competed in pairs skating with her partner, Brandon Frazier. They won the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Denney was born in 1995.
Haven Willow Jaden Tran is a young American social media personality and actress, born in 2007. She gained popularity through her family's YouTube channel and has appeared in several television shows and films.
While the name Haven was originally more commonly given to boys, it has become increasingly popular as a name for girls in recent decades. Its meaning as a place of safety and refuge has contributed to its appeal as a name that conveys a sense of security and comfort.
People
Haven + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Haven 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
Haven: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Haven?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25,136 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Haven 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 13,636 US residents.
Is Haven a common name?
We classify Haven as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 25,961 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Haven most popular?
The single biggest year for Haven was 2024, when 1,639 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Haven is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Haven in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,827 people with the name Haven, or 5.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,782 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 Haven 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 Haven?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Haven leans strongly female. 13,644 people counted with this name were female (81.1%), compared with 3,187 male bearers (18.9%). 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 Haven?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Haven is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.7%) and Black (8.7%). 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 Haven most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Haven in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.3% (11,836 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 Haven in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Haven a female name?
Yes, 81.8% of people registered as Haven 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 Haven still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Haven 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 Haven 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 Americans are named Haven?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.