Trajan
From ancient Roman naming tradition, meaning "from the city of Tralles".
Name Census estimates that about 777 living Americans carry the first name Trajan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Trajan today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Trajan births was 1999 (141 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Trajan. 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.
People living today
777
~ 1 in 441,125 Americans
Peak year
1999
141 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,672
Tracked since 1994
Census
Trajan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 757 people with the first name Trajan, which placed it at #15,253 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
#15,253
National first-name rank
People counted
757
757 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Trajan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trajan is White at 45.4%. The next largest groups are Black (22.1%) and Two or More Races (14.8%). 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 Trajan 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 Trajan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.4% · 344
- Black or African American22.1% · 167
- Two or more races14.8% · 112
- Hispanic or Latino12.4% · 94
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.2% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 16
Popularity
Trajan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Trajan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 319 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Trajan 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 Trajan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Trajans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, North Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Trajan, while Washington, Virginia, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Trajan
The name Trajan originated from the Latin language and culture during the time of ancient Rome. The name is derived from the Roman family name Trajanus, which comes from the word "trajanus" meaning "from Trajan" or "from the Trajanic line". This family name referred to the gens Trajan, a Roman family that claimed descent from the legendary Trojan hero Tros.
The name gained historical significance due to its association with the Roman emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98 to 117 AD. He was born Marcus Ulpius Trajanus in 53 AD in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica (modern-day Spain). Trajan is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman emperors, known for his military campaigns that expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent, as well as his administrative reforms and public building projects.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Trajan can be found in ancient Roman texts and inscriptions, particularly those related to the life and reign of Emperor Trajan himself. The name is also mentioned in historical works by Roman authors such as Pliny the Younger, who was a close friend and advisor to Trajan.
Apart from the famous emperor, other notable figures throughout history who bore the name Trajan include:
1. Trajan Decius (201-251 AD), a Roman emperor who ruled from 249 to 251 AD and is known for his persecution of Christians.
2. Trajan Priscus (fl. 6th century AD), a Byzantine historian and author of the "History of the Wars of Justinian".
3. Trajan Langušić (1481-1557), a Croatian humanist scholar and writer.
4. Trajan Vuković (1905-1981), a Serbian painter and printmaker known for his woodcuts and linocuts.
5. Trajan Laleski (1920-1993), a Macedonian writer and poet who wrote in the Macedonian language.
While the name Trajan has been used throughout history, it has been most popular and significant during the Roman era and in regions with strong cultural connections to ancient Rome, such as parts of Europe and the Mediterranean.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Trajan
People
Trajan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Trajan 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
Trajan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Trajan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 777 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Trajan 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 441,125 US residents.
Is Trajan a common name?
We classify Trajan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 787 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Trajan most popular?
The single biggest year for Trajan was 1999, when 141 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Trajan is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Trajan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 757 people with the name Trajan, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,253 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 Trajan 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 Trajan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trajan appears almost entirely male. Of the 759 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Trajan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trajan is White at 45.4%. The next largest groups are Black (22.1%) and Two or More Races (14.8%). 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 Trajan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Trajan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.4% (344 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 Trajan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Trajan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Trajan 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 Trajan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Trajan 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 Trajan 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 Trajan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.