Torben
Of Scandinavian origin, meaning "Thor's bear" or "thunder bear".
Name Census estimates that about 391 living Americans carry the first name Torben. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Torben today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Torben births was 2022 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Torben. 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 Torben with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
391
~ 1 in 876,610 Americans
Peak year
2022
33 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,539
Tracked since 1968
Census
Torben in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 503 people with the first name Torben, which placed it at #20,514 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
#20,514
National first-name rank
People counted
503
503 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Torben
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Torben is White at 88.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Black (3.0%). 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 Torben 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 Torben at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.3% · 444
- Two or more races5.0% · 25
- Black or African American3.0% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Popularity
Torben: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Torben from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 160 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
Torben 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 Torben during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Torbens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Torben
The name Torben is of Danish and Norwegian origin, derived from the Old Norse name Þórbjǫrn, which means "Thor's bear." Thor was the Norse god of thunder, and the bear was a revered animal in Norse mythology, symbolizing strength and courage.
The name Torben first appeared in written records during the Viking Age, around the 9th to 11th centuries. It was a popular name among the Scandinavian peoples, particularly in Denmark and Norway, where it has remained in use throughout the centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Torben can be found in the Icelandic sagas, such as the Saga of Grettir the Strong, which features a character named Torben Oxemain. These sagas were written down in the 13th and 14th centuries but recount events from the Viking Age.
In Denmark, one of the earliest notable figures with the name Torben was Torben Oxe (1501-1575), a Danish nobleman and statesman who served as the Governor of Denmark and played a significant role in the transition from Catholic to Protestant rule in the country.
Another historical figure with the name Torben was Torben Husen Bredahl (1658-1733), a Danish naval officer and shipbuilder who designed and oversaw the construction of several warships for the Danish Navy during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
In Norway, one of the most famous individuals with the name Torben was Torben Pederssøn Bjelke (1639-1718), a Norwegian-born Danish admiral who played a crucial role in several naval battles during the Great Northern War (1700-1721) against Sweden.
Other notable individuals with the name Torben include Torben Grut (1872-1964), a Danish architect and urban planner who designed several notable buildings in Copenhagen, and Torben Meyer (1927-2016), a Danish actor and comedian known for his roles in numerous Danish films and television shows.
While the name Torben has its roots in Old Norse and Scandinavian culture, it has also gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly in countries with strong historical ties to Denmark and Norway, such as the United States and Canada.
People
Torben + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Torben 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
Torben: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Torben?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 391 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Torben 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 876,610 US residents.
Is Torben a common name?
We classify Torben as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 396 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Torben most popular?
The single biggest year for Torben was 2022, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Torben 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 Torben in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 503 people with the name Torben, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,514 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 Torben 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 Torben?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Torben appears almost entirely male. Of the 500 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Torben?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Torben is White at 88.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Black (3.0%). 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 Torben most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Torben in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.3% (444 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 Torben in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Torben a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Torben 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 Torben still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Torben 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 Torben 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 called Torben?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.