Rushton
From Old English meaning "rush settlement", referring to a place overgrown with rushes.
Name Census estimates that about 125 living Americans carry the first name Rushton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rushton today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rushton births was 2013 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rushton. 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
125
~ 1 in 2,742,035 Americans
Peak year
2013
13 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2021 SSA rank
#8,701
Tracked since 1987
Census
Rushton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 206 people with the first name Rushton, which placed it at #37,688 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
#37,688
National first-name rank
People counted
206
206 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rushton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rushton is White at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (3.9%). 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 Rushton 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 Rushton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.4% · 176
- Black or African American6.3% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 8
- Two or more races3.4% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 2
Popularity
Rushton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rushton from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 76 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rushton 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 Rushton 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 Rushton
The name Rushton is an English habitational surname that evolved into a rare given name. It derives from the Old English words "rysc" meaning rush and "tun" meaning an enclosure or settlement, referring to a place where rushes grew abundantly.
The earliest known recording of the name Rushton can be traced back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was listed as "Riscetone" in Northamptonshire, England. This suggests the name's origins date back to Anglo-Saxon times, potentially as early as the 7th century AD.
In the Middle Ages, the name Rushton appeared in various historical records and documents, such as the Hundred Rolls of 1273 and the Feet of Fines for Yorkshire in 1347. These early references solidify the name's establishment in medieval England.
One of the earliest notable individuals bearing the name Rushton was Sir Geoffrey Rushton, a 14th-century English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War. He participated in the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and was knighted for his bravery on the battlefield.
Another historical figure was Sir Edward Rushton, a 16th-century English politician and landowner. He served as a Member of Parliament for Liverpool in 1553 and played a role in the establishment of the town's governance during the reign of Queen Mary I.
In the realm of literature, the name Rushton is associated with the 17th-century English poet and playwright, Edward Rushton. He authored several plays, including "The Temporary Sharer" and "The Bankrupt," which were performed in London during the Restoration period.
The 18th century saw the rise of Reverend William Rushton, an English clergyman and author. He published various religious works, including "A Defence of Pluralities" in 1710, which addressed the controversial practice of holding multiple ecclesiastical benefices.
In more recent times, Sir Alan Rushton (1901-1983) was a prominent British civil engineer and industrialist. He served as the president of the Institution of Civil Engineers and played a significant role in the construction of the iconic Mulberry Harbours during World War II.
People
Rushton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rushton as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rushton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rushton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 125 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rushton 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 2,742,035 US residents.
Is Rushton a common name?
We classify Rushton as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 126 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rushton most popular?
The single biggest year for Rushton was 2013, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rushton is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rushton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 206 people with the name Rushton, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,688 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 Rushton 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 Rushton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rushton leans strongly male. 207 people counted with this name were male (96.3%), compared with 8 female bearers (3.7%). 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 Rushton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rushton is White at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (3.9%). 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 Rushton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rushton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.4% (176 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 Rushton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rushton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rushton 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 Rushton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rushton 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 Rushton 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 Rushton as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Rushton, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.