Quincy
From the French surname meaning "estate of the fifth son".
Name Census estimates that about 29,569 living Americans carry the first name Quincy. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Quincy today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Quincy births was 1977 (743 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Quincy. 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 Quincy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
30K
~ 1 in 11,592 Americans
Peak year
1977
743 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#689
Tracked since 1880
Census
Quincy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 22,586 people with the first name Quincy, which placed it at #1,488 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
#1,488
National first-name rank
People counted
23K
22,586 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Quincy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quincy is Black at 53.1%. The next largest groups are White (27.6%) and Two or More Races (10.0%). 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 Quincy 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 Quincy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.1% · 11,988
- White27.6% · 6,232
- Two or more races10.0% · 2,265
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 1,332
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 528
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 241
Gender
Gender distribution for Quincy
Quincy leans heavily male at 84.3% of total registrations, but 5,098 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Quincy as a male name
- Ranked #689 in 2024
- 392 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1977 (716 births)
Quincy as a female name
- Ranked #958 in 2024
- 272 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (272 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Quincy leans strongly male. 19,115 people counted with this name were male (84.6%), compared with 3,472 female bearers (15.4%).
Popularity
Quincy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Quincy from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6,264 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Quincy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Quincy 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 Quincy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Quincys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Quincy, while Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 508 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Quincy
The name Quincy has its origins in the Latin language and can be traced back to the Roman era. It is derived from the Latin word "quintus," which means "fifth" or "fifth-born." This suggests that the name may have been given to the fifth child in a family.
During the Roman times, the name Quintius was a common Roman family name. It is believed that the name Quincy evolved as a variant or diminutive form of Quintius. The name Quincy was particularly popular among the aristocratic families in ancient Rome.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Quincy can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Livy. He mentions a Roman consul named Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus, who lived in the 5th century BC. This historical figure played a significant role in the early years of the Roman Republic.
In the Middle Ages, the name Quincy gained prominence in England. It was brought to the country by the Norman conquerors, who were descendants of the ancient Romans. One of the most notable individuals bearing this name was Saer de Quincy, an Anglo-Norman nobleman who lived in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Another famous bearer of the name Quincy was John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. He was born in 1767 and served as president from 1825 to 1829. His name, Quincy, was derived from the town of Quincy, Massachusetts, where his family had roots.
Other notable individuals named Quincy throughout history include:
1. Quincy Jones, an American record producer, musician, and film composer born in 1933.
2. Quincy Delight Jones III, an American actor and model born in 1992, son of Quincy Jones.
3. Quincy Trouppe, an American baseball player who played for the Negro leagues in the 1940s and 1950s.
4. Quincy Acy, an American professional basketball player born in 1990.
5. Quincy Enunwa, an American football wide receiver born in 1992.
While the name Quincy has Roman origins and was popular among the aristocracy in ancient times, it has also been embraced in various cultures and societies throughout history, making it a name with a rich and diverse background.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Quincy
People
Quincy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Quincy 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
Quincy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Quincy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29,569 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Quincy 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 11,592 US residents.
Is Quincy a common name?
We classify Quincy as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 32,447 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Quincy most popular?
The single biggest year for Quincy was 1977, when 743 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Quincy is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Quincy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 22,586 people with the name Quincy, or 7.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,488 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 Quincy 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 Quincy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Quincy leans strongly male. 19,115 people counted with this name were male (84.6%), compared with 3,472 female bearers (15.4%). 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 Quincy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quincy is Black at 53.1%. The next largest groups are White (27.6%) and Two or More Races (10.0%). 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 Quincy most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Quincy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.1% (11,988 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 Quincy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Quincy a male name?
Yes, 84.3% of people registered as Quincy 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 Quincy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Quincy 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 Quincy 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 Quincy?
Want to know how many people share the name Quincy? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.