Jordan
A unisex name of Semitic origin meaning "flowing down".
Name Census estimates that about 518,558 living Americans carry the first name Jordan. It sits at #104 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Jordan today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jordan births was 1990 (22,094 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jordan. 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 Jordan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
519K
~ 1 in 661 Americans
Peak year
1990
22,094 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#104
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jordan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 452,333 people with the first name Jordan, which placed it at #101 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
#101
National first-name rank
People counted
452K
452,333 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
149.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jordan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jordan is White at 61.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.4%) and Hispanic (12.4%). 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 Jordan 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 Jordan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.0% · 275,799
- Black or African American16.4% · 74,171
- Hispanic or Latino12.4% · 55,893
- Two or more races7.1% · 32,141
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 10,423
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3,906
Gender
Gender distribution for Jordan
Jordan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 533,499 total registrations, 398,415 (74.7%) were male and 135,084 (25.3%) were female.
Jordan as a male name
- Ranked #104 in 2024
- 3,326 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (16,137 births)
Jordan as a female name
- Ranked #539 in 2024
- 559 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1997 (7,166 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jordan on both sides of the split. Of the 452,330 people counted with this name, 329,734 were male (72.9%) and 122,596 were female (27.1%).
Popularity
Jordan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jordan from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 206,509 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jordan 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 Jordan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jordans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Jordan, while Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10,369 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jordan
The name Jordan has its roots in the ancient Hebrew language and is derived from the word "yarad," meaning "to descend" or "to flow down." It is believed to have originated as a reference to the Jordan River, one of the most significant water sources in the Middle East.
The Jordan River holds great historical and religious significance, as it is mentioned numerous times in the Bible, playing a crucial role in the narratives of the Old and New Testaments. The river is closely associated with the life and ministry of John the Baptist, who baptized people, including Jesus Christ, in its waters.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jordan can be found in the Book of Genesis, where it is mentioned as the river that the Israelites crossed on their journey to the Promised Land. In the second century AD, the name Jordan appears in the works of Ptolemy, a renowned Greek astronomer and geographer.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Jordan. One of the most famous was Jordan of Saxony (1191-1237), a Dominican friar and medieval philosopher who made significant contributions to the field of natural science and logic.
Another notable Jordan was Jordan of Giano (c. 1290-1360), an Italian physician and philosopher who wrote extensively on various subjects, including mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.
In the 16th century, Jordan Nemore (c. 1500-1559) was a German mathematician and astronomer known for his work on planetary theory and his criticism of the Copernican heliocentric model.
During the 17th century, Jordan Statius (1567-1654), a Dutch jurist and diplomat, played an important role in the establishment of the Dutch East India Company and the colonization of parts of Southeast Asia.
In more recent times, Jordan Lewis (1865-1945) was an African-American educator and civil rights activist who fought for equal rights and educational opportunities for Black Americans in the early 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jordan
People
Jordan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jordan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jordan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jordan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 518,558 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jordan 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 661 US residents.
Is Jordan a common name?
We classify Jordan as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 533,499 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jordan most popular?
The single biggest year for Jordan was 1990, when 22,094 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jordan is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jordan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 452,333 people with the name Jordan, or 149.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #101 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 Jordan 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 Jordan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jordan on both sides of the split. Of the 452,330 people counted with this name, 329,734 were male (72.9%) and 122,596 were female (27.1%). 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 Jordan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jordan is White at 61.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.4%) and Hispanic (12.4%). 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 Jordan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jordan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.0% (275,799 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 Jordan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jordan a male name?
Yes, 74.7% of people registered as Jordan 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 Jordan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jordan 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 Jordan 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 Jordan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.