Stewart
A masculine given name derived from "steward", an occupational surname.
Name Census estimates that about 19,732 living Americans carry the first name Stewart. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Stewart today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stewart births was 1959 (650 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stewart. 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 Stewart with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Stewart is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 85 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,370 Americans
Peak year
1959
650 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,958
Tracked since 1880
Census
Stewart in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,784 people with the first name Stewart, which placed it at #1,565 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
#1,565
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
20,784 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Stewart
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stewart is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (7.6%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Stewart 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 Stewart at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.3% · 17,312
- Black or African American7.6% · 1,575
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 710
- Two or more races2.7% · 562
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 377
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 248
Gender
Gender distribution for Stewart
Out of the 31,261 babies given the name Stewart since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Stewart as a male name
- Ranked #3,958 in 2024
- 28 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (647 births)
Stewart as a female name
- Ranked #12,526 in 1999
- 7 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1988 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stewart leans strongly male. 20,547 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 236 female bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Stewart: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Stewart from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 5,742 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Stewart 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 Stewart during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Stewarts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Stewart, while North Dakota, Alaska, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 512 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Stewart
The name Stewart is a masculine given name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the occupational surname Stewart, which means "steward" or "guardian." The name has its roots in the medieval period when the position of a steward, responsible for managing household affairs and estates, was a prominent role.
The earliest recorded use of the name Stewart dates back to the 12th century, when members of the Stewart family held the position of High Stewards of Scotland. The most notable figure was Walter Stewart, who served as the 6th High Steward of Scotland from 1292 to 1326. His son, Robert II, became the first monarch of the House of Stewart when he ascended to the Scottish throne in 1371.
Throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods, the name Stewart gained prominence in Scotland and was associated with the royal lineage. Several Scottish monarchs bore the name, including James I (1394-1437), James II (1430-1460), and James IV (1473-1513). The name also spread beyond Scotland, with notable figures such as Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley (1545-1567), the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Beyond the realm of royalty, the name Stewart has been carried by various historical figures, including Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), an Irish nationalist politician and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and James Maitland Stewart (1908-1997), the renowned American actor known for his roles in classic films such as "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Rear Window."
Other notable individuals with the given name Stewart include Stewart Granger (1913-1993), a British actor known for his roles in adventure films, and Stewart Udall (1920-2010), an American politician who served as the Secretary of the Interior under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
The name Stewart has also been associated with various literary works, such as the poem "The Lady of the Lake" by Sir Walter Scott, where one of the central characters is named Roderick Dhu, a Highland chieftain of the Clan Alpine, whose given name is Stewart.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Stewart
People
Stewart + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stewart as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Stewart: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stewart?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,732 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stewart 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 17,370 US residents.
Is Stewart a common name?
We classify Stewart as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31,261 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stewart most popular?
The single biggest year for Stewart was 1959, when 650 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stewart is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Stewart in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,784 people with the name Stewart, or 6.88 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,565 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 Stewart 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 Stewart?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stewart leans strongly male. 20,547 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 236 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Stewart?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stewart is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (7.6%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Stewart most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Stewart in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.3% (17,312 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 Stewart in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Stewart a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Stewart 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 Stewart still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Stewart 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 Stewart 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 Stewart as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.