Hypatia
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "supreme" or "highest".
Name Census estimates that about 90 living Americans carry the first name Hypatia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hypatia today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hypatia births was 2013 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hypatia. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hypatia. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
90
~ 1 in 3,808,382 Americans
Peak year
2013
11 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,078
Tracked since 2013
Census
Hypatia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 169 people with the first name Hypatia, which placed it at #42,487 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
#42,487
National first-name rank
People counted
169
169 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hypatia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hypatia is White at 42.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (33.7%) and Two or More Races (13.6%). 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 Hypatia 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 Hypatia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.6% · 72
- Hispanic or Latino33.7% · 57
- Two or more races13.6% · 23
- Black or African American7.1% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 5
Popularity
Hypatia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hypatia from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 50 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
Hypatia 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 Hypatia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hypatia
The name Hypatia originated from the Greek language, deriving from the word "hypatos" meaning "highest" or "supreme". It was a feminine name given in ancient Greece, particularly in the city of Alexandria during the 4th and 5th centuries AD.
Hypatia was the name of one of the most famous women of the ancient world. Hypatia of Alexandria, born around 350-370 AD, was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. She is considered to be the first notable woman in mathematics. Hypatia lived in Alexandria and taught philosophy and astronomy. She was tragically killed by a Christian mob in 415 AD.
The name gained popularity in the ancient world due to Hypatia of Alexandria's fame and influence. It appeared in various historical records and texts from the time period, cementing its place in Greek culture and history.
Another notable Hypatia was Hypatia of Cyren, a Greek mathematician and philosopher who lived in the 4th century BC. She is mentioned in several ancient texts and is considered one of the earliest known female mathematicians.
In the 6th century AD, Hypatia of Constantinople was a Byzantine abbess and saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. She founded the Monastery of Christ the Philanthropist in Constantinople.
During the Renaissance period, the name Hypatia gained renewed interest due to the rediscovery of ancient Greek texts and the fascination with classical culture. Hypatia Ronhovde, born in 1554, was a Norwegian poet and translator who helped revive interest in the name.
In the 19th century, Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, born in 1858, was a British secularist and women's rights activist. She was named after the famous Hypatia of Alexandria, reflecting the influence of the historical figure on modern naming traditions.
People
Hypatia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hypatia 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
Hypatia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hypatia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 90 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hypatia 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 3,808,382 US residents.
Is Hypatia a common name?
We classify Hypatia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 91 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hypatia most popular?
The single biggest year for Hypatia was 2013, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hypatia is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hypatia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 169 people with the name Hypatia, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,487 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 Hypatia 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 Hypatia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hypatia appears almost entirely female. Of the 171 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Hypatia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hypatia is White at 42.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (33.7%) and Two or More Races (13.6%). 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 Hypatia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hypatia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.6% (72 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 Hypatia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hypatia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hypatia in the SSA data are female. 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 Hypatia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hypatia 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 Hypatia 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 Hypatia as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.