Irwin
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "boar friend".
Name Census estimates that about 4,716 living Americans carry the first name Irwin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Irwin today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Irwin births was 1925 (534 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Irwin. 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 Irwin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 72,679 Americans
Peak year
1925
534 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,205
Tracked since 1880
Census
Irwin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,188 people with the first name Irwin, which placed it at #3,401 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
#3,401
National first-name rank
People counted
6.2K
6,188 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Irwin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Irwin is White at 67.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.5%) and Black (9.3%). 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 Irwin 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 Irwin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.2% · 4,156
- Hispanic or Latino14.5% · 900
- Black or African American9.3% · 576
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.7% · 416
- Two or more races1.3% · 80
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 60
Gender
Gender distribution for Irwin
Out of the 15,946 babies given the name Irwin since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Irwin as a male name
- Ranked #5,510 in 2024
- 17 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1925 (527 births)
Irwin as a female name
- Ranked #4,205 in 1925
- 7 female births in 1925
- Peak: 1925 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Irwin appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,182 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Irwin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Irwin 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 4,440 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Irwin 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 Irwin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Irwins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Irwin, while Washington, Virginia, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 383 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Irwin
The name Irwin has its roots in the Old English language and can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain. It is derived from the words "Ira" meaning "green" and "wine" meaning "friend," thus translating to "friend of the green meadow." The original spelling was "Irawin" or "Irawyn."
This name was particularly popular among the Anglo-Saxons who lived in the regions of Mercia and Northumbria, where the countryside was abundant with lush meadows and pastures. It was a common name given to boys born in rural areas or to those whose families were involved in agriculture or pastoral activities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Irwin can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Irewin" in several entries, indicating that it was already in use during the Norman period.
In the 12th century, the name Irwin was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II, which were records of financial transactions and legal proceedings in medieval England. This suggests that the name had gained some prominence and was used by individuals of varying social ranks.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Irwin. One of the earliest was Irwin of Stratton (c. 1150-1220), an English nobleman who served as Sheriff of Wiltshire and was a prominent figure during the reigns of Richard I and John.
Another famous Irwin was Irwin Gregor (c. 1470-1528), a Scottish clergyman and diplomat who served as Bishop of Dunblane and was involved in negotiations with England during the turbulent period of the Anglo-Scottish Wars.
In the 17th century, Irwin Hawkins (1623-1701) was an English mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of navigation and was involved in the establishment of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
During the American Revolutionary War, Irwin McDowell (1754-1835) was a notable figure who served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army and played a role in several key battles, including the Battle of King's Mountain.
In the 20th century, Irwin Allen (1916-1991) was a renowned American film and television producer, best known for creating science fiction series such as "Lost in Space" and "The Time Tunnel," as well as disaster films like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Irwin
People
Irwin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Irwin as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Irwin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Irwin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,716 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Irwin 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 72,679 US residents.
Is Irwin a common name?
We classify Irwin as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15,946 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Irwin most popular?
The single biggest year for Irwin was 1925, when 534 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Irwin is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Irwin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,188 people with the name Irwin, or 2.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,401 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 Irwin 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 Irwin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Irwin appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,182 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Irwin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Irwin is White at 67.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.5%) and Black (9.3%). 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 Irwin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Irwin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.2% (4,156 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 Irwin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Irwin a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Irwin 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 Irwin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Irwin 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 Irwin 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 share the name Irwin?
Want to know how many people share the name Irwin? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.