Ted
A masculine name of English origin, diminutive of Theodore meaning "divine gift".
Name Census estimates that about 43,158 living Americans carry the first name Ted. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ted today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ted births was 1958 (1,748 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ted. 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 Ted with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ted is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 264 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Ted have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
43K
~ 1 in 7,942 Americans
Peak year
1958
1,748 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,932
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ted in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 49,172 people with the first name Ted, which placed it at #917 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
#917
National first-name rank
People counted
49K
49,172 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ted
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ted is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.2%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Ted 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 Ted at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.3% · 40,472
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.2% · 2,574
- Black or African American5.1% · 2,506
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 2,213
- Two or more races2.0% · 1,007
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 400
Gender
Gender distribution for Ted
Out of the 75,386 babies given the name Ted since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Ted as a male name
- Ranked #2,932 in 2024
- 43 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1958 (1,743 births)
Ted as a female name
- Ranked #10,271 in 1980
- 6 female births in 1980
- Peak: 1926 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ted appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,170 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Ted: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ted 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 14,739 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
Ted 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 Ted during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Teds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Ted, while Rhode Island, Delaware, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,398 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ted
The name Ted is a diminutive form of the medieval English name Theodore, which is derived from the Greek name Theodoros. The name Theodoros is composed of two Greek words: theos, meaning "god," and doron, meaning "gift." Thus, the name Theodore can be interpreted as "God's gift."
In ancient Greek mythology, Theodoros was the name of a character who was a skilled warrior and companion of Heracles. The name was also adopted by early Christians, as it aligned with their belief that life itself was a gift from God. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Theodore can be found in the New Testament, where it refers to a Christian martyred in the 4th century AD.
The diminutive form "Ted" emerged in the Middle Ages as a shorter, more informal version of Theodore. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ted dates back to the 13th century, when it appeared in English court records.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Ted or Theodore:
1. Ted Williams (1918-2002), an American baseball player widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters in the sport's history.
2. Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th President of the United States and a renowned conservationist and statesman.
3. Ted Hughes (1930-1998), an influential English poet and children's writer, who served as the Poet Laureate of England from 1984 until his death.
4. Ted Bundy (1946-1989), an American serial killer who confessed to kidnapping, raping, and murdering numerous young women across several states in the 1970s.
5. Ted Kaczynski (born 1942), also known as the "Unabomber," an American domestic terrorist who carried out a series of bombings between 1978 and 1995.
The name Ted has been popular throughout various periods in history, particularly in English-speaking countries, where it has been embraced as a friendly and approachable nickname for Theodore.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ted
People
Ted + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ted as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ted: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ted?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 43,158 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ted 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 7,942 US residents.
Is Ted a common name?
We classify Ted as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 75,386 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ted most popular?
The single biggest year for Ted was 1958, when 1,748 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ted is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ted in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 49,172 people with the name Ted, or 16.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #917 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 Ted 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 Ted?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ted appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,170 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Ted?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ted is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.2%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Ted most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ted in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.3% (40,472 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 Ted in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ted a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Ted 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 Ted still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ted 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 Ted 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 Americans are named Ted?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Ted at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.