Hawkins
Son of a falconer or maker of hawks.
Name Census estimates that about 874 living Americans carry the first name Hawkins. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Hawkins today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hawkins births was 2016 (88 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hawkins. 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.
People living today
874
~ 1 in 392,167 Americans
Peak year
2016
88 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,344
Tracked since 1914
Census
Hawkins in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 771 people with the first name Hawkins, which placed it at #15,039 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
#15,039
National first-name rank
People counted
771
771 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hawkins
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hawkins is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Hawkins 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 Hawkins at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.7% · 622
- Black or African American8.0% · 62
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 33
- Two or more races3.9% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Hawkins
Hawkins leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 10 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Hawkins as a male name
- Ranked #3,344 in 2024
- 35 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (88 births)
Hawkins as a female name
- Ranked #16,050 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2021 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hawkins leans strongly male. 733 people counted with this name were male (94.3%), compared with 44 female bearers (5.7%).
Popularity
Hawkins: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hawkins from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 513 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hawkins remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hawkins 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 Hawkins during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hawkins' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, California recorded the most babies named Hawkins, while Georgia, Florida, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hawkins
The name Hawkins is of English origin, derived from the Old English surname "Hafoc", which means "hawker" or "hawker's son". The name is believed to have originated in the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century.
The name is thought to be related to the Old English word "hafoc", which means "hawk". This connection suggests that the name may have originally been given to individuals who worked with hawks, such as falconers or hunters, or those who lived in areas where hawks were prevalent.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Hawkins can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions several individuals with the surname "Hafoc" or similar variations.
In the 16th century, Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595) was an English naval commander and explorer who became famous for his voyages to the West Indies and his involvement in the African slave trade. His exploits contributed to the rise of English maritime power and the expansion of the British Empire.
Another notable figure with the name Hawkins was Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894), an English artist and sculptor who specialized in creating life-sized models of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. His work played a significant role in the early study and public understanding of paleontology.
In literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), the renowned American novelist and short story writer, is believed to have descended from a family with the surname Hawkins. His ancestors changed the spelling of their name to "Hawthorne" in the 17th century.
Other notable individuals named Hawkins include Walter Hawkins (1911-1992), an American gospel music composer and pianist, and James Augustine Aloysius Hawkins (1900-1965), better known as Slim Hawkins, an American jazz drummer and bandleader active in the 1920s and 1930s.
The name Hawkins has been carried through history by individuals from various walks of life, reflecting its diverse origins and associations with different professions and cultural backgrounds.
People
Hawkins + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hawkins 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
Hawkins: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hawkins?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 874 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hawkins 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 392,167 US residents.
Is Hawkins a common name?
We classify Hawkins as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 896 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hawkins most popular?
The single biggest year for Hawkins was 2016, when 88 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hawkins is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hawkins in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 771 people with the name Hawkins, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,039 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 Hawkins 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 Hawkins?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hawkins leans strongly male. 733 people counted with this name were male (94.3%), compared with 44 female bearers (5.7%). 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 Hawkins?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hawkins is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Hawkins most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hawkins in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.7% (622 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 Hawkins in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hawkins a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Hawkins 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 Hawkins still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hawkins 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 Hawkins 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 share the name Hawkins?
You can see how many people have the name Hawkins on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.