Meyer
A given name meaning "illustrious" or "renowned" in German.
Name Census estimates that about 2,252 living Americans carry the first name Meyer. It is a predominantly male name (96.4% of registrations). The average person named Meyer today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meyer births was 1917 (214 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meyer. 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 Meyer with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Meyer is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 200 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 152,200 Americans
Peak year
1917
214 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,825
Tracked since 1881
Census
Meyer in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,845 people with the first name Meyer, which placed it at #7,988 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
#7,988
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,845 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meyer
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meyer is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Black (3.2%). 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 Meyer 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 Meyer at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.9% · 1,603
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 94
- Black or African American3.2% · 59
- Two or more races2.9% · 53
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Meyer
Meyer leans heavily male at 96.4% of total registrations, but 200 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Meyer as a male name
- Ranked #1,825 in 2024
- 89 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1917 (214 births)
Meyer as a female name
- Ranked #6,297 in 2024
- 19 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meyer leans strongly male. 1,649 people counted with this name were male (89.1%), compared with 202 female bearers (10.9%).
Popularity
Meyer: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meyer from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 1,593 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Meyer remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Meyer 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 Meyer during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Meyers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Meyer, while Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 179 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Meyer
The name Meyer has its origins in the German language and culture, dating back to the Middle Ages. It derives from the German word "meier," which originally referred to a steward or overseer of a large estate or farm. The name likely emerged as a occupational surname for individuals who held such positions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Meyer can be found in the 12th century, when it appeared in various legal and administrative documents throughout medieval Germany. During this period, the name was often spelled as "Meier" or "Meyer," reflecting regional variations in pronunciation and orthography.
While the name Meyer does not have a direct connection to any specific ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been associated with several notable historical figures over the centuries. One such individual was Meyer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), a renowned German banker and the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, which played a significant role in European finance and politics.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Meyer Lutz (1619-1681), a German composer and organist who made significant contributions to the development of baroque music in the 17th century. His works, including numerous sacred compositions and organ pieces, were widely performed and influential during his lifetime.
In the realm of literature, Meyer Levin (1905-1981) was an American novelist and journalist known for his works exploring Jewish themes and the Holocaust. His novel "The Bastard" (1960), which delved into the experiences of a German-Jewish family during World War II, garnered critical acclaim and brought attention to the lasting impacts of the Nazi regime.
In the field of science, Hans Adolf Meyer (1858-1929) was a German chemist who made significant contributions to the understanding of molecular structure and chemical bonding. His work on the valence theory of chemical bonding, known as the Meyer-Pauling theory, laid the foundation for modern concepts in organic chemistry.
Another noteworthy figure was Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996), an American art historian and professor at Columbia University. His extensive research and writings on modern art, particularly his analysis of the works of Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso, had a profound influence on the study and interpretation of 20th-century art movements.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who bore the name Meyer, each making significant contributions to their respective fields and leaving a lasting impact on society and culture.
People
Meyer + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meyer as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Meyer: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meyer?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,252 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meyer 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 152,200 US residents.
Is Meyer a common name?
We classify Meyer as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,504 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meyer most popular?
The single biggest year for Meyer was 1917, when 214 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meyer 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 Meyer in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,845 people with the name Meyer, or 0.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,988 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 Meyer 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 Meyer?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meyer leans strongly male. 1,649 people counted with this name were male (89.1%), compared with 202 female bearers (10.9%). 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 Meyer?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meyer is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Black (3.2%). 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 Meyer most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Meyer in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.9% (1,603 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 Meyer in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meyer a male name?
Yes, 96.4% of people registered as Meyer 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 Meyer still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meyer 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 Meyer 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 common is the name Meyer?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.