Holten
Of Old English origin meaning "wooded valley".
Name Census estimates that about 385 living Americans carry the first name Holten. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Holten today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Holten births was 2019 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Holten. 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
385
~ 1 in 890,271 Americans
Peak year
2019
22 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,286
Tracked since 1995
Census
Holten in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 289 people with the first name Holten, which placed it at #30,250 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
#30,250
National first-name rank
People counted
289
289 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Holten
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holten is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Holten 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 Holten at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.5% · 250
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 18
- Two or more races4.2% · 12
- Black or African American1.7% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Popularity
Holten: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Holten from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 170 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Holten remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Holten 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 Holten during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Holtens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Holten
The given name Holten has its origins in the Old English language, dating back to the 5th century AD. It is derived from the Old English words "hol" meaning "hollow" and "tun" meaning "enclosure" or "settlement". This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone living in a settlement near a hollow or valley.
Holten was a relatively common name among the Anglo-Saxons who inhabited parts of what is now England. It appears in some ancient records and documents from that period, though specific references are scarce due to the limited written records from those times.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Holten was a minor nobleman who lived in the kingdom of Mercia in the 7th century AD. His name was Holten Aelfric, and he is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a witness to a land grant by King Wulfhere in 675 AD.
Another notable figure with the name Holten was a monk who lived in the 9th century AD. His name was Holten of Evesham, and he was a scholar and writer at the Benedictine monastery in Evesham, Worcestershire. He is credited with writing a Latin treatise on the proper cultivation of herbs and medicinal plants.
In the 11th century, there was a Norman knight named Holten de Beaumont who fought alongside William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England in 1066 AD. He was awarded lands in Lincolnshire for his service.
During the Middle Ages, a wealthy merchant named Holten Fitzwilliam lived in the city of York in the 13th century. He was a prominent member of the local guild of merchants and was known for his trade in wool and textiles.
In the 15th century, a scholar and philosopher named Holten Raleigh was born in Devonshire, England. He studied at Oxford University and wrote several treatises on logic and rhetoric which were widely read during the Renaissance period.
While the name Holten was once relatively common in England, it has become quite rare in modern times. However, its historical roots and associations with notable figures from various periods in English history make it a name with a rich cultural heritage.
People
Holten + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Holten 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
Holten: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Holten?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 385 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Holten 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 890,271 US residents.
Is Holten a common name?
We classify Holten as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 388 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Holten most popular?
The single biggest year for Holten was 2019, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Holten is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Holten in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 289 people with the name Holten, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,250 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 Holten 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 Holten?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Holten appears almost entirely male. Of the 291 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Holten?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holten is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Holten most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Holten in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.5% (250 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 Holten in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Holten a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Holten 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 Holten still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Holten 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 Holten 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 Holten?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.