Theodore
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "gift from God".
Our analysis of Social Security Administration records puts the number of living Americans named Theodore at approximately 197,010. That places it at #4 in the national ranking of first names. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Theodore today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Theodore births was 2024 (12,024 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Rodney (194,929).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Theodore. 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 Theodore with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Theodore is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 962 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
197K
~ 1 in 1,740 Americans
Peak year
2024
12,024 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4
Tracked since 1880
Census
Theodore in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 141,169 people with the first name Theodore, which placed it at #400 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
#400
National first-name rank
People counted
141K
141,169 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
46.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Theodore
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Theodore is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Theodore 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 Theodore at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.6% · 108,129
- Black or African American10.1% · 14,215
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 7,562
- Two or more races4.6% · 6,434
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 3,919
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 910
Gender
Gender distribution for Theodore
Out of the 304,723 babies given the name Theodore 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.
Theodore as a male name
- Ranked #4 in 2024
- 12,011 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (12,011 births)
Theodore as a female name
- Ranked #8,357 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1929 (30 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Theodore appears almost entirely male. Of the 141,175 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Theodore: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Theodore from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 52,204 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Theodore 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 Theodore during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Theodores live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Theodore, while Wyoming, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,709 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Theodore
The name Theodore originates from the Greek language and dates back to ancient times. It is derived from the words "theos" meaning "God" and "doron" meaning "gift", thus translating to "gift of God". The name was popular in ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire.
One of the earliest known references to the name Theodore can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, where it mentions a man named Theodore who was among the Seventy Disciples sent out by Jesus Christ. The name also appears in various Greek and Byzantine texts and historical records.
The first recorded example of the name Theodore can be traced back to the 4th century AD, with Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428 AD), a renowned theologian and bishop in the early Christian church. Another notable figure from this era was Theodore the Studite (759-826 AD), a Byzantine monk, abbot, and writer who played a significant role in the revival of monasticism in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
In the Middle Ages, the name Theodore gained popularity across Europe. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th President of the United States, known for his leadership during the Progressive Era and his conservation efforts.
Other notable individuals with the name Theodore include Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), an American novelist and pioneer of naturalism in literature, and Theodore Geisel (1904-1991), better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, the beloved children's author and illustrator.
In the realm of science, Theodore von Kármán (1881-1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and the development of the modern air transportation industry.
The name Theodore has also been borne by many rulers and monarchs throughout history, such as Theodore I (1589-1655), the Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia, and Theodore II (1818-1868), the last Emperor of the Abyssinian Empire.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Theodore
People
Theodore + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Theodore 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
Theodore: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Theodore?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 197,010 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Theodore 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 1,740 US residents.
Is Theodore a common name?
We classify Theodore as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 304,723 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Theodore most popular?
The single biggest year for Theodore was 2024, when 12,024 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Theodore is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Theodore in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 141,169 people with the name Theodore, or 46.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #400 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 Theodore 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 Theodore?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Theodore appears almost entirely male. Of the 141,175 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 Theodore?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Theodore is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Theodore most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Theodore in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.6% (108,129 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 Theodore in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Theodore a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Theodore 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 Theodore still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Theodore 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 Theodore 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 Theodore?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.