Henderson
Derived from Old English words meaning "son of Henry".
Name Census estimates that about 1,988 living Americans carry the first name Henderson. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Henderson today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Henderson births was 1918 (83 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Henderson. 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 Henderson with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 172,412 Americans
Peak year
1918
83 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,076
Tracked since 1880
Census
Henderson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,845 people with the first name Henderson, which placed it at #7,988 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
#7,988
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,845 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Henderson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Henderson is Black at 46.3%. The next largest groups are White (28.7%) and Hispanic (14.9%). 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 Henderson 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 Henderson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.3% · 854
- White28.7% · 530
- Hispanic or Latino14.9% · 275
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 98
- Two or more races2.7% · 49
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 39
Popularity
Henderson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Henderson from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 619 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Henderson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Henderson 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 Henderson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hendersons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the most babies named Henderson, while Maryland, Florida, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 81 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Henderson
The given name Henderson has its origins in the medieval English language and culture. It is a patronymic name, meaning that it was derived from the name of an ancestor, in this case the Old English personal name Hendric. This name is a compound of two elements: "hend" meaning "courteous, gentle, aristocratic" and "ric" meaning "ruler, power, or authority."
The earliest recorded use of the name Henderson can be traced back to the 13th century in England. It was initially a surname, but over time, it also became used as a given name. One of the earliest known individuals with the name Henderson was Sir Henderson de Fortibus, a Norman knight who lived in the late 12th century.
In the religious realm, the name Henderson is not particularly associated with any specific religious texts or scriptures. However, there have been notable individuals with this name who have made contributions to various religious movements and institutions throughout history.
One such individual was Henderson Rainey (1886-1972), an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist who played a significant role in the desegregation of public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama, during the 1950s. Another notable figure was Henderson Belk (1874-1957), an American businessman and philanthropist who made significant contributions to the Methodist Church in North Carolina.
In the realm of literature, Henderson the Rain King, a novel by Saul Bellow published in 1959, is a well-known work featuring a protagonist with the name Henderson. The book explores themes of identity, existentialism, and the search for meaning in life.
Throughout history, there have been several other notable individuals who have borne the name Henderson. These include:
1. Henderson Forsythe (1917-2006), an American film and television actor best known for his roles in classic Hollywood movies like The Man Who Came to Dinner and Yankee Doodle Dandy.
2. Henderson Alvarez (born 1990), a professional baseball pitcher from Venezuela who has played for teams like the Miami Marlins and the Philadelphia Phillies.
3. Henderson Doherty (1836-1919), an Irish-American civil engineer who designed and constructed several notable bridges and viaducts in the late 19th century, including the Kinzua Viaduct in Pennsylvania.
4. Henderson Luelling (1809-1878), an American nurseryman and pioneer who is credited with helping to establish the fruit industry in the Pacific Northwest by bringing thousands of fruit trees and plants across the Oregon Trail.
5. Henderson Nugteren (1923-2017), a Dutch architect and urban planner who was influential in the reconstruction and development of Rotterdam after World War II.
People
Henderson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Henderson 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
Henderson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Henderson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,988 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Henderson 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 172,412 US residents.
Is Henderson a common name?
We classify Henderson as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,242 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Henderson most popular?
The single biggest year for Henderson was 1918, when 83 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Henderson is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Henderson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,845 people with the name Henderson, or 0.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,988 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 Henderson 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 Henderson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Henderson leans strongly male. 1,772 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 76 female bearers (4.1%). 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 Henderson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Henderson is Black at 46.3%. The next largest groups are White (28.7%) and Hispanic (14.9%). 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 Henderson most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Henderson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.3% (854 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 Henderson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Henderson a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Henderson 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 Henderson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Henderson 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 Henderson 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 the name Henderson?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.