Abbott
A name of English origin derived from the title of an abbot.
Name Census estimates that about 934 living Americans carry the first name Abbott. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Abbott today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abbott births was 2016 (59 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abbott. 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
934
~ 1 in 366,975 Americans
Peak year
2016
59 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,680
Tracked since 1880
Census
Abbott in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 909 people with the first name Abbott, which placed it at #13,330 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
#13,330
National first-name rank
People counted
909
909 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abbott
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abbott is White at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Abbott 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 Abbott at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.1% · 774
- Black or African American5.0% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 40
- Two or more races3.9% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Abbott
Abbott leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 24 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Abbott as a male name
- Ranked #3,680 in 2024
- 30 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (59 births)
Abbott as a female name
- Ranked #14,493 in 2015
- 6 female births in 2015
- Peak: 2014 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abbott leans strongly male. 810 people counted with this name were male (88.9%), compared with 101 female bearers (11.1%).
Popularity
Abbott: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abbott from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 491 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Abbott remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abbott 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 Abbott during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abbotts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Texas, Massachusetts, New York recorded the most babies named Abbott, while Ohio, Michigan, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abbott
The name Abbott has its origins in the Aramaic language, a Semitic language that was widely spoken in the ancient Middle East. It is derived from the Aramaic word "abba," meaning "father" or "spiritual leader." This term was later adopted into Greek as "abbas," and then into Latin as "abbas" or "abba."
In early Christianity, the title "abba" was used to refer to the head of a monastery or a community of monks. The name Abbott, therefore, likely emerged as a way of identifying those who held this position of spiritual authority within Christian monastic orders.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Abbott can be found in the writings of St. Jerome, a 4th-century scholar and translator of the Bible. He mentions an "Abbot Isidore," who was the head of a monastic community in the desert of Nitria, Egypt, around the year 370 AD.
As Christianity spread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, the name Abbott became more widely used. It was particularly prevalent in regions with strong monastic traditions, such as England, France, and Italy.
Among the notable individuals who bore the name Abbott throughout history are:
1. Abbott Aelfric (c. 955 - c. 1020), an English abbot, scholar, and author known for his influential works on grammar and homilies.
2. Abbott Suger (c. 1081 - 1151), a French abbot of the abbey of St. Denis, who was a prominent figure in the development of Gothic architecture and a close advisor to the French king.
3. Abbott John Wycliffe (c. 1320 - 1384), an English philosopher, theologian, and Bible translator whose ideas laid the foundation for the Protestant Reformation.
4. Abbott George Calvert (c. 1580 - 1632), an English politician and the first Lord Proprietor of the Province of Maryland in British North America.
5. Abbott Martín Sarmiento (1695 - 1772), a Spanish scholar, writer, and Benedictine monk renowned for his contributions to the fields of linguistics, ethnography, and natural sciences.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who bore the name Abbott, reflecting its deep-rooted connections to religious and intellectual life, particularly within the Christian monastic tradition.
People
Abbott + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abbott as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Abbott: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abbott?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 934 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abbott 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 366,975 US residents.
Is Abbott a common name?
We classify Abbott as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,293 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abbott most popular?
The single biggest year for Abbott was 2016, when 59 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abbott 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 Abbott in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 909 people with the name Abbott, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,330 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 Abbott 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 Abbott?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abbott leans strongly male. 810 people counted with this name were male (88.9%), compared with 101 female bearers (11.1%). 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 Abbott?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abbott is White at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Abbott most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Abbott in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.1% (774 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 Abbott in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abbott a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Abbott 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 Abbott still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abbott 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 Abbott 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 common is the name Abbott?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.