Newman
Hebrew name meaning "new man".
Name Census estimates that about 617 living Americans carry the first name Newman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Newman today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Newman births was 1921 (67 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Newman. 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
617
~ 1 in 555,518 Americans
Peak year
1921
67 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,600
Tracked since 1882
Census
Newman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 806 people with the first name Newman, which placed it at #14,580 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
#14,580
National first-name rank
People counted
806
806 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Newman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Newman is White at 57.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.1%). 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 Newman 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 Newman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.9% · 467
- Black or African American18.6% · 150
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.1% · 73
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 69
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.1% · 25
- Two or more races2.7% · 22
Popularity
Newman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Newman 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 442 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
Newman 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 Newman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Newmans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Alabama, Louisiana, Texas recorded the most babies named Newman, while North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Newman
The given name Newman is derived from the Old English words "niwe" meaning new and "mann" meaning man. It emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 11th century, as a descriptive name referring to a new or recently arrived man in a community or settlement.
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled as "Neuhmann" or "Niweman" in various regions of England. It later evolved into the more modern spelling of "Newman" by the 13th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Neuhmann" in several entries, indicating its use among the Anglo-Saxon population at that time.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Newman was predominantly found in England, particularly in rural areas and villages. It was commonly given to children as a way to distinguish them from others with the same surname or to indicate their status as a newcomer to the community.
In the 14th century, a notable bearer of the name was Sir John Newman, a English knight and landowner who fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. He was born around 1320 and died in 1397.
During the Renaissance period, the name gained popularity among the educated classes. One famous bearer was John Henry Newman, an influential English theologian, philosopher, and leader of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England. He was born in 1801 and died in 1890.
In the 19th century, the name became more widespread in the United States due to immigration from England and other parts of Europe. One notable American bearer was John P. Newman, a Union Army officer and educator who served as the first President of the University of Virginia from 1845 to 1849.
Another prominent figure was Eric Newman, an American numismatist and author who was considered one of the leading experts on early American coinage. He was born in 1911 and died in 2020 at the age of 108.
In the world of literature, the name is associated with John Henry Newman, an English writer and poet who was a contemporary of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was born in 1786 and died in 1837.
People
Newman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Newman as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Newman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Newman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 617 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Newman 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 555,518 US residents.
Is Newman a common name?
We classify Newman as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,896 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Newman most popular?
The single biggest year for Newman was 1921, when 67 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Newman is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Newman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 806 people with the name Newman, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,580 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 Newman 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 Newman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Newman leans strongly male. 755 people counted with this name were male (94.1%), compared with 47 female bearers (5.9%). 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 Newman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Newman is White at 57.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.1%). 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 Newman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Newman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.9% (467 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 Newman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Newman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Newman 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 Newman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Newman 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 Newman 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 Newman?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.