Aberdeen
A Scottish place name referring to a town near the mouth of the River Don.
Name Census estimates that about 244 living Americans carry the first name Aberdeen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aberdeen today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aberdeen births was 2017 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aberdeen. 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
244
~ 1 in 1,404,731 Americans
Peak year
2017
26 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,906
Tracked since 1919
Popularity
Aberdeen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aberdeen from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 154 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aberdeen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aberdeen 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 Aberdeen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aberdeens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Aberdeen
The name Aberdeen is a place name derived from the Scottish Gaelic words 'Obair' meaning 'mouth' and 'Dhè' meaning 'of the deity', referring to the location of the city of Aberdeen at the mouth of the River Dee. The name likely originated in the 12th century when the settlement grew around the estuary of the River Dee in northeastern Scotland.
Aberdeen is not a traditional given name, but rather a locational surname that has been adopted as a first name in modern times. The earliest recorded use of Aberdeen as a first name is difficult to pinpoint, but it may have first appeared in the late 19th or early 20th century, particularly in English-speaking countries with Scottish heritage.
While there are no notable historical figures with the first name Aberdeen, several individuals have borne it as a surname. One of the earliest known bearers of the surname was Robert de Aberdene, a Scottish cleric who lived in the late 13th century and served as Bishop of Ross from 1284 to 1307.
Another notable figure with the surname Aberdeen was George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 to 1855. He played a significant role in the Crimean War and was later appointed as the first Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire.
In the realm of literature, Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice" features a character named Caroline Bingley, whose sister-in-law is referred to as "Mrs. Hurst, who had married a man of more fashion than fortune, in spite of all her relations could say against it." Some literary scholars have speculated that Mrs. Hurst's maiden name may have been Aberdeen, though this is not explicitly stated in the novel.
In more recent times, a few notable individuals have carried Aberdeen as a first name, though it remains relatively uncommon. One example is Aberdeen L. Hendrix (1901-1964), an American baseball player who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns in the 1920s and 1930s.
While the name Aberdeen is not a traditional given name with a rich historical background, its origins as a locational surname reflect the significance of the Scottish city and its location at the mouth of the River Dee. As with many place names adopted as first names, its usage as a given name is a modern phenomenon, albeit one with a connection to Scottish heritage.
People
Aberdeen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aberdeen 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
Aberdeen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aberdeen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 244 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aberdeen 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 1,404,731 US residents.
Is Aberdeen a common name?
We classify Aberdeen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 259 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aberdeen most popular?
The single biggest year for Aberdeen was 2017, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aberdeen is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Aberdeen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aberdeen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aberdeen in the SSA data are female. 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 Aberdeen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aberdeen 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 Aberdeen 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have the name Aberdeen?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.