Hayden
A masculine name of English origin meaning "hay-covered valley".
Name Census estimates that about 140,851 living Americans carry the first name Hayden. It sits at #154 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Hayden today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hayden births was 2008 (8,611 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hayden. 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 Hayden with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Hayden is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
141K
~ 1 in 2,433 Americans
Peak year
2008
8,611 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#154
Tracked since 1880
Census
Hayden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 118,662 people with the first name Hayden, which placed it at #477 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
#477
National first-name rank
People counted
119K
118,662 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
39.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hayden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hayden is White at 81.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Hayden 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 Hayden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.9% · 97,149
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 7,723
- Two or more races5.5% · 6,551
- Black or African American3.3% · 3,973
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 2,173
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,093
Gender
Gender distribution for Hayden
Hayden is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 144,513 total registrations, 111,803 (77.4%) were male and 32,710 (22.6%) were female.
Hayden as a male name
- Ranked #154 in 2024
- 2,337 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (6,470 births)
Hayden as a female name
- Ranked #401 in 2024
- 787 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (2,662 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hayden on both sides of the split. Of the 118,666 people counted with this name, 92,292 were male (77.8%) and 26,374 were female (22.2%).
Popularity
Hayden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hayden from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 60,536 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hayden 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 Hayden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Haydens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Hayden, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,743 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hayden
The name Hayden is an English surname that later became adopted as a masculine given name. It is believed to have originated from the Old English words "hæg" meaning hedge and "denu" meaning valley, essentially translating to "the valley in the hedge" or "hedged valley." This name is thought to have its roots in the Anglo-Saxon era, with the earliest recorded instances of the name dating back to the 12th century.
In the year 1202, a record shows a person named Haiden de Haidene, which is considered one of the earliest documented uses of the name. Over time, the spelling evolved to Hayden, and it became more commonly used as a surname in England.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Hayden was Sir John Hayden, who lived from around 1470 to 1518. He was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London in 1512. Another significant figure was Digby Hayden (1605-1658), an English clergyman and theologian who served as a chaplain to King Charles I during the English Civil War.
In the 18th century, Hopton Hayden (1688-1770) was a prominent British lawyer and Member of Parliament. He played a role in the establishment of the Foundling Hospital in London, which was one of the earliest establishments dedicated to caring for abandoned children.
Moving forward, the name Hayden gained more recognition with the renowned American composer and pianist Dennis Hayden, who lived from 1917 to 2007. He is renowned for his contributions to modern classical music and his innovative compositions.
Another notable individual was Sterling Hayden (1916-1986), an American actor, author, and maritime explorer. He starred in numerous films throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, including "The Asphalt Jungle," "The Killing," and "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."
While the name Hayden has its roots in Old English, it has gained widespread popularity across various cultures and continues to be a popular choice for parents worldwide.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Hayden
People
Hayden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hayden 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
Hayden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hayden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 140,851 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hayden 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 2,433 US residents.
Is Hayden a common name?
We classify Hayden as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 144,513 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hayden most popular?
The single biggest year for Hayden was 2008, when 8,611 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hayden is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hayden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 118,662 people with the name Hayden, or 39.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #477 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 Hayden 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 Hayden?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hayden on both sides of the split. Of the 118,666 people counted with this name, 92,292 were male (77.8%) and 26,374 were female (22.2%). 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 Hayden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hayden is White at 81.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Hayden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hayden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.9% (97,149 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 Hayden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hayden a male name?
Yes, 77.4% of people registered as Hayden 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 Hayden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hayden 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 Hayden 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 called Hayden?
You can see how many Americans are named Hayden on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.