Turner
A diminutive form of the Old French word tornour, meaning a craftsman who worked with a lathe.
Name Census estimates that about 7,943 living Americans carry the first name Turner. It is a predominantly male name (96.2% of registrations). The average person named Turner today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Turner births was 2019 (263 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Turner. 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 Turner with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Turner is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 384 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
7.9K
~ 1 in 43,152 Americans
Peak year
2019
263 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,006
Tracked since 1880
Census
Turner in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,748 people with the first name Turner, which placed it at #3,197 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
#3,197
National first-name rank
People counted
6.7K
6,748 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Turner
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Turner is White at 82.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.7%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Turner 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 Turner at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.4% · 5,563
- Black or African American8.7% · 590
- Two or more races4.3% · 293
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 186
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 68
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 48
Gender
Gender distribution for Turner
Turner leans heavily male at 96.2% of total registrations, but 384 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Turner as a male name
- Ranked #1,006 in 2024
- 223 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (246 births)
Turner as a female name
- Ranked #5,121 in 2024
- 26 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (26 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Turner leans strongly male. 6,368 people counted with this name were male (94.3%), compared with 383 female bearers (5.7%).
Popularity
Turner: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Turner from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,360 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Turner remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Turner 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 Turner during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Turners live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Turner, while South Dakota, Idaho, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 153 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Turner
The given name Turner has its roots in the English language, deriving from the Old English word "turnere," which referred to a person who operated a lathe or turned wood, metal, or other materials. This occupation-based name originated in medieval England, likely around the 12th or 13th century.
The earliest recorded instances of Turner as a first name can be traced back to the late 15th century in England. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was William Turner, an English botanist and ecclesiastical reformer born in 1508. He is considered a prominent figure in the English Reformation and is known for his contributions to the study of plants.
Another notable figure with the name Turner was Joseph Mallord William Turner, a renowned English Romantic painter born in 1775. He is considered one of the greatest landscape painters in British art history and is famous for his innovative techniques and use of light and color.
In the realm of literature, Nat Turner, an African-American enslaved preacher, gained historical significance for leading a slave rebellion in 1831 in Virginia, United States. His rebellion, known as the Nat Turner Rebellion, sparked a wave of fear and violence against enslaved people in the American South.
Moving into the 20th century, Tina Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939, is a legendary American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is widely regarded as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" and is known for her powerful vocals and energetic stage performances.
Another notable figure is Ted Turner, an American media mogul and philanthropist born in 1938. He is best known for founding the Cable News Network (CNN) and pioneering the concept of 24-hour news coverage.
While the name Turner has its origins in an occupation, it has evolved into a common first name over the centuries, carried by individuals who have made significant contributions to various fields, including botany, art, literature, music, and media.
People
Turner + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Turner 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
Turner: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Turner?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,943 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Turner 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 43,152 US residents.
Is Turner a common name?
We classify Turner as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,178 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Turner most popular?
The single biggest year for Turner was 2019, when 263 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Turner is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Turner in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,748 people with the name Turner, or 2.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,197 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 Turner 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 Turner?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Turner leans strongly male. 6,368 people counted with this name were male (94.3%), compared with 383 female bearers (5.7%). 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 Turner?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Turner is White at 82.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.7%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Turner most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Turner in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.4% (5,563 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 Turner in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Turner a male name?
Yes, 96.2% of people registered as Turner 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 Turner still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Turner 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 Turner 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 have the name Turner?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.