Orhan
Turkish masculine name meaning "an esteemed, respected person".
Name Census estimates that about 382 living Americans carry the first name Orhan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Orhan today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orhan births was 2022 (81 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orhan. 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 Orhan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
382
~ 1 in 897,263 Americans
Peak year
2022
81 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,222
Tracked since 1997
Census
Orhan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 540 people with the first name Orhan, which placed it at #19,526 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
#19,526
National first-name rank
People counted
540
540 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Orhan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orhan is White at 92.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.8%) and Hispanic (1.9%). 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 Orhan 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 Orhan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.4% · 499
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 10
- Two or more races1.9% · 10
- Black or African American1.1% · 6
Popularity
Orhan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orhan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 253 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Orhan 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 Orhan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orhans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. California, New York, Virginia recorded the most babies named Orhan, while Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Orhan
The name Orhan has its origins in the Turkish language and culture. It is believed to have derived from the Old Turkic word 'orkhon', which refers to the Orkhon Valley in present-day Mongolia, where ancient Turkic inscriptions were found.
The name gained popularity during the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over a vast territory spanning from the Balkans to the Middle East and North Africa. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Orhan appears in the 14th century, referring to Orhan Gazi, the second sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who reigned from 1326 to 1359.
Orhan has been a common name among Turks and other ethnic groups influenced by the Ottoman culture. In the 16th century, Orhan Bey was a prominent military leader and statesman who served as the governor of Ottoman Bosnia for several years.
In the 19th century, Orhan Pamuk, a renowned Turkish novelist, playwright, and academic, was born in 1952. He is the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature and is known for his works exploring the themes of identity, history, and memory in the context of modern Turkey.
Another notable figure with the name Orhan was Orhan Veli Kanik, a Turkish poet and one of the pioneers of the Garip movement in Turkish literature. Born in 1914, he is celebrated for his innovative and accessible poetic style that broke away from traditional forms.
In more recent times, Orhan Gencebay, born in 1944, is a legendary Turkish singer and composer who has had a significant impact on the development of Turkish arabesque music. His songs have been popular throughout the Middle East and have influenced generations of musicians.
These are just a few examples of the historical and cultural significance of the name Orhan, which has been carried by influential figures across various fields, from politics and military to literature and music.
People
Orhan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orhan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Orhan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orhan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 382 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orhan 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 897,263 US residents.
Is Orhan a common name?
We classify Orhan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 385 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orhan most popular?
The single biggest year for Orhan was 2022, when 81 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orhan is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Orhan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 540 people with the name Orhan, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,526 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 Orhan 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 Orhan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orhan appears almost entirely male. Of the 539 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Orhan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orhan is White at 92.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.8%) and Hispanic (1.9%). 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 Orhan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Orhan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.4% (499 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 Orhan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Orhan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Orhan 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 Orhan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Orhan 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 Orhan 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 have the name Orhan?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.