Quentyn
A masculine name of Celtic origin meaning "leader", "chief", or "prince".
Name Census estimates that about 229 living Americans carry the first name Quentyn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Quentyn today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Quentyn births was 2009 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Quentyn. 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
229
~ 1 in 1,496,744 Americans
Peak year
2009
16 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,951
Tracked since 1995
Census
Quentyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 207 people with the first name Quentyn, which placed it at #37,585 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
#37,585
National first-name rank
People counted
207
207 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Quentyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quentyn is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (21.7%) and Two or More Races (12.6%). 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 Quentyn 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 Quentyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.7% · 109
- Black or African American21.7% · 45
- Two or more races12.6% · 26
- Hispanic or Latino9.7% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.4% · 7
Popularity
Quentyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Quentyn from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 94 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Quentyn 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 Quentyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Quentyn
The name Quentyn has its origins in the ancient Roman culture, believed to have derived from the Latin name "Quintinus," which itself is a derivative of the Latin word "quintus," meaning "fifth." This suggests that the name may have initially been given to a fifth-born son.
One of the earliest known references to the name Quentyn can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus, who mentioned a soldier named "Quintinus" in his work "Annals," written in the first century AD. This indicates that the name was in use during the Roman imperial period.
In the Middle Ages, the name Quentyn gained popularity across Europe, particularly in England and France. It is believed that the name was introduced to England by Norman nobles after the Norman Conquest in 1066. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in England is Quentyn de Beaumont, a nobleman who lived in the 12th century.
In medieval literature, the name Quentyn appeared in the Arthurian legends, with Sir Quentyn being one of the Knights of the Round Table in the tales of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail. This association with the legendary Arthurian knights likely contributed to the name's enduring appeal in the subsequent centuries.
Several notable historical figures bore the name Quentyn, including Quentyn Matsys (1466-1530), a Flemish Renaissance painter and founder of the Antwerp school of painting. Another prominent individual was Quentyn Crisp (1908-1999), an English writer, artist, and eccentric who became an icon of the LGBTQ community in the latter part of the 20th century.
Other notable individuals named Quentyn include Quentyn Tarantino (born 1963), the acclaimed American filmmaker known for his stylized and nonlinear storytelling in movies like "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs." Additionally, Quentyn Bryce (1844-1917) was an Australian politician and judge who served as the 8th Governor-General of Australia from 1908 to 1914.
Throughout history, the name Quentyn has been found in various spellings, such as Quintin, Quintyn, and Quentin, reflecting the linguistic and cultural influences of different regions and time periods. However, the name has maintained its distinctive character and enduring appeal across generations.
People
Quentyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Quentyn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Q
Other first names starting with Q with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Quentyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Quentyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 229 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Quentyn 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 1,496,744 US residents.
Is Quentyn a common name?
We classify Quentyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 232 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Quentyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Quentyn was 2009, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Quentyn is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Quentyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 207 people with the name Quentyn, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,585 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 Quentyn 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 Quentyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Quentyn leans strongly male. 197 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 2 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Quentyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quentyn is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (21.7%) and Two or More Races (12.6%). 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 Quentyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Quentyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.7% (109 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 Quentyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Quentyn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Quentyn 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 Quentyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Quentyn 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 Quentyn 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 Quentyn as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.