Thatcher
A unisex English name meaning "thatcher of roofs" or "roof tiler".
Name Census estimates that about 4,721 living Americans carry the first name Thatcher. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Thatcher today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Thatcher births was 2021 (297 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Thatcher. 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 Thatcher with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Thatcher is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 72,602 Americans
Peak year
2021
297 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,037
Tracked since 1965
Census
Thatcher in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,464 people with the first name Thatcher, which placed it at #5,077 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
#5,077
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,464 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Thatcher
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thatcher is White at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Thatcher 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 Thatcher at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.0% · 3,082
- Two or more races5.0% · 172
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 133
- Black or African American1.0% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 21
Gender
Gender distribution for Thatcher
Out of the 4,773 babies given the name Thatcher 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.
Thatcher as a male name
- Ranked #1,037 in 2024
- 214 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (297 births)
Thatcher as a female name
- Ranked #9,377 in 2016
- 12 female births in 2016
- Peak: 2016 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thatcher leans strongly male. 3,420 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 52 female bearers (1.5%).
Popularity
Thatcher: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Thatcher from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,312 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Thatcher remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Thatcher 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 Thatcher during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Thatchers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. Texas, California, Missouri recorded the most babies named Thatcher, while Montana, Connecticut, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 78 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Thatcher
Thatcher is an English occupational surname derived from the Old English word "thæccan" meaning "to thatch" or "to cover with thatch." It originally referred to someone who thatched roofs with straw or reed. The name can be traced back to the 13th century in England.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Thatcher dates back to the Hundred Rolls of 1273, where it is listed as "Robertus le Thaccher" in Oxfordshire. This indicates that the name was already in use as an occupational descriptor during the medieval period in England.
In the 14th century, the name appears in various spellings such as "Thakker," "Thacchere," and "Thetchere" in records from different parts of England, reflecting the regional variations in pronunciation and spelling at the time.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Thatcher was Thomas Thatcher, a Puritan minister born in 1620 in England. He emigrated to New England in 1635 and became the first minister of the Old South Church in Boston.
Another historical figure with the name Thatcher was George Thatcher, an English-born American soldier and statesman who served as a brigadier general during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).
In the 19th century, Henry Thatcher was a prominent American educator and theologian who served as the president of Ohio University from 1851 to 1854.
Perhaps the most famous bearer of the name Thatcher was Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), the British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the office.
Another notable individual with the name Thatcher was Marcus Thatcher (1905-1998), an American actor and singer who appeared in various films and television shows throughout the mid-20th century.
While the name Thatcher originated as an occupational surname, it has been adopted as a given name, particularly in English-speaking countries. The name's association with Margaret Thatcher and her significant political legacy may have contributed to its popularity as a first name in recent decades.
People
Thatcher + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Thatcher 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
Thatcher: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Thatcher?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,721 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Thatcher 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 72,602 US residents.
Is Thatcher a common name?
We classify Thatcher as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,773 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Thatcher most popular?
The single biggest year for Thatcher was 2021, when 297 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Thatcher is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Thatcher in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,464 people with the name Thatcher, or 1.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,077 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 Thatcher 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 Thatcher?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thatcher leans strongly male. 3,420 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 52 female bearers (1.5%). 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 Thatcher?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thatcher is White at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Thatcher most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Thatcher in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.0% (3,082 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 Thatcher in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Thatcher a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Thatcher 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 Thatcher still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Thatcher 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 Thatcher 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 are named Thatcher?
See how many people share the name Thatcher on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.