Hayes
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "hedged area".
Name Census estimates that about 17,972 living Americans carry the first name Hayes. It sits at #160 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (95.5% of registrations). The average person named Hayes today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hayes births was 2024 (2,319 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hayes. 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 Hayes with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Hayes is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 873 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Hayes is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,072 Americans
Peak year
2024
2,319 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#160
Tracked since 1880
Census
Hayes in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,854 people with the first name Hayes, which placed it at #2,660 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
#2,660
National first-name rank
People counted
8.9K
8,854 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hayes
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hayes is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Hayes 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 Hayes at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.9% · 7,690
- Black or African American4.5% · 398
- Two or more races3.9% · 349
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 307
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 56
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 54
Gender
Gender distribution for Hayes
Hayes leans heavily male at 95.5% of total registrations, but 873 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Hayes as a male name
- Ranked #160 in 2024
- 2,249 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (2,249 births)
Hayes as a female name
- Ranked #2,533 in 2024
- 70 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (98 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hayes leans strongly male. 8,275 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 581 female bearers (6.6%).
Popularity
Hayes: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hayes from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 9,248 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
Hayes 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 Hayes during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hayes' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Hayes, while Hawaii, Delaware, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 323 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hayes
The name Hayes is an English given name derived from the Old English word "hæs," meaning "hay" or "grass." It likely originated as a surname for someone who lived near a hayfield or worked with hay. The name first appeared in historical records during the Middle Ages in England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hayes dates back to the 13th century when a man named William Hayes was mentioned in the Hundred Rolls of Norfolk, England, in 1273. This document was a survey of landowners and their tenants, indicating that the name was already in use at that time.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Sir John Hayes was a soldier and member of the English Parliament. He served as a knight during the Hundred Years' War and was involved in the capture of the French town of Fronsac in 1370.
During the Renaissance period, the name Hayes gained more prominence. In the 16th century, a composer and musician named William Hayes (c. 1525-1595) was known for his contributions to English church music and madrigals.
One of the most famous individuals with the name Hayes was Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893), the 19th President of the United States. He served as President from 1877 to 1881 and is remembered for his efforts to reconcile the North and South after the American Civil War.
Another notable figure was Sir Edmund Dummer Hayes (1803-1869), a British naval officer and explorer who played a significant role in the exploration of the Arctic regions in the mid-19th century. He participated in several expeditions to search for the missing British explorer Sir John Franklin.
In literature, the name Hayes is associated with the American novelist and short story writer Alice Hayes (1857-1939), known for her works depicting life in the American South during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
While the name Hayes has its origins in England, it has since spread to other parts of the world and has been adopted by various cultures and communities over the centuries.
People
Hayes + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hayes 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
Hayes: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hayes?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,972 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hayes 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 19,072 US residents.
Is Hayes a common name?
We classify Hayes as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 19,546 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hayes most popular?
The single biggest year for Hayes was 2024, when 2,319 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hayes is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hayes in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,854 people with the name Hayes, or 2.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,660 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 Hayes 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 Hayes?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hayes leans strongly male. 8,275 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 581 female bearers (6.6%). 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 Hayes?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hayes is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Hayes most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hayes in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.9% (7,690 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 Hayes in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hayes a male name?
Yes, 95.5% of people registered as Hayes 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 Hayes still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hayes 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 Hayes 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 Hayes as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.