Livingston
From a location or estate name meaning "lively stone" or "precious stone".
Name Census estimates that about 604 living Americans carry the first name Livingston. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Livingston today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Livingston births was 1917 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Livingston. 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
604
~ 1 in 567,474 Americans
Peak year
1917
29 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,415
Tracked since 1890
Census
Livingston in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 757 people with the first name Livingston, which placed it at #15,253 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
#15,253
National first-name rank
People counted
757
757 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
52.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Livingston
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Livingston is Black at 52.0%. The next largest groups are White (32.1%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Livingston 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 Livingston at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American52.0% · 394
- White32.1% · 243
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.8% · 44
- Two or more races4.1% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Livingston
Livingston leans heavily male at 89.9% of total registrations, but 107 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Livingston as a male name
- Ranked #10,468 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1917 (29 births)
Livingston as a female name
- Ranked #7,415 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Livingston leans strongly male. 653 people counted with this name were male (86.5%), compared with 102 female bearers (13.5%).
Popularity
Livingston: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Livingston from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 154 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Livingston remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Livingston 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 Livingston during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Livingstons live
Origin
Meaning and history of Livingston
The name Livingston is an English given name with Scottish origins. It originated as a surname derived from the town of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. The town's name is believed to have come from the Old English words "lēofingas" meaning "the descendants of Lēofing" and "tun" meaning "farm" or "settlement."
One of the earliest known references to the name Livingston can be found in a charter from the 12th century, where it was recorded as "Levingistoun." This suggests that the name was already in use as a surname during the medieval period in Scotland.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Sir Archibald Livingston was mentioned in the Ragman Rolls, a collection of instruments of homage to Edward I of England from Scottish landowners and nobles. Sir Archibald was born around 1260 and served as a member of the Scottish parliament.
The name Livingston gained prominence in the United States during the colonial era. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Robert Livingston (1654-1728), a Scottish immigrant who became a prominent landowner and businessman in New York. He was part of the influential Livingston family, which played a significant role in the political and economic development of the American colonies.
Another notable figure was Philip Livingston (1716-1778), a merchant and statesman from New York. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and served in the Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War.
In the 19th century, Edward Livingston (1764-1836) was a prominent American jurist and statesman who served as the U.S. Secretary of State under President Andrew Jackson. He was also instrumental in drafting the criminal codes of Louisiana and the United States.
Other historical figures with the given name Livingston include Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813), an American lawyer and diplomat who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, and Crawford Livingston (1874-1944), an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from New York.
People
Livingston + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Livingston as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Livingston: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Livingston?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 604 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Livingston 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 567,474 US residents.
Is Livingston a common name?
We classify Livingston as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,059 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Livingston most popular?
The single biggest year for Livingston was 1917, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Livingston is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Livingston in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 757 people with the name Livingston, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,253 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 Livingston 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 Livingston?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Livingston leans strongly male. 653 people counted with this name were male (86.5%), compared with 102 female bearers (13.5%). 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 Livingston?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Livingston is Black at 52.0%. The next largest groups are White (32.1%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Livingston most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Livingston in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.0% (394 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 Livingston in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Livingston a male name?
Yes, 89.9% of people registered as Livingston 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 Livingston still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Livingston 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 Livingston 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 Americans are named Livingston?
Find out how many people share the name Livingston on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.