Allen
Derived from Old English meaning "handsome, accomplished".
Name Census estimates that about 177,027 living Americans carry the first name Allen. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Allen today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Allen births was 1951 (5,203 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Allen. 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 Allen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Allen is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,866 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
177K
~ 1 in 1,936 Americans
Peak year
1951
5,203 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#573
Tracked since 1880
Census
Allen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 166,926 people with the first name Allen, which placed it at #332 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
#332
National first-name rank
People counted
167K
166,926 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
55.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Allen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Allen is White at 71.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.8%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Allen 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 Allen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.6% · 119,592
- Black or African American12.8% · 21,338
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 10,339
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 9,031
- Two or more races3.0% · 4,960
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 1,666
Gender
Gender distribution for Allen
Out of the 273,148 babies given the name Allen since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Allen as a male name
- Ranked #573 in 2024
- 497 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1951 (5,179 births)
Allen as a female name
- Ranked #8,975 in 2020
- 11 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1925 (36 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Allen appears almost entirely male. Of the 166,924 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Allen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Allen from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 47,527 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Allen 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 Allen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,998 | 0 | 1,998 |
| 1890s | 2,002 | 11 | 2,013 |
| 1900s | 2,558 | 32 | 2,590 |
| 1910s | 11,493 | 177 | 11,670 |
| 1920s | 20,092 | 255 | 20,347 |
| 1930s | 24,357 | 211 | 24,568 |
| 1940s | 39,047 | 217 | 39,264 |
| 1950s | 47,321 | 206 | 47,527 |
| 1960s | 37,695 | 224 | 37,919 |
| 1970s | 21,672 | 152 | 21,824 |
| 1980s | 21,910 | 190 | 22,100 |
| 1990s | 16,952 | 94 | 17,046 |
| 2000s | 12,576 | 43 | 12,619 |
| 2010s | 8,816 | 43 | 8,859 |
| 2020s | 2,793 | 11 | 2,804 |
Geography
Where Allens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Allen, while Wyoming, Alaska, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,161 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Allen
The name Allen is derived from the medieval English surname of Anglo-Saxon origin. It is believed to have originated from the Old English pre-7th century word "alor" or "alor-ac", meaning "valley" or "meadow of alders". This suggests that the name may have been used to identify people who lived in or near an alder grove or valley.
The name Allen has been in use since the Middle Ages, and it can be found in various historical records and documents from that time period. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was spelled as "Alanus".
In the 12th century, the name Allen appeared in the form of "Alain" in the famous medieval French epic poem, "The Song of Roland". This suggests that the name may have had some popularity in France during that time.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Allen. One of the most famous was Allen of Brittany (1084-1119), a Breton knight who fought alongside William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
Another well-known Allen was Allen of Ghent (c. 1420-1475), a Flemish Renaissance painter and manuscript illuminator who worked for the Dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century.
In the field of literature, Allen Tate (1899-1979) was an American poet, essayist, and literary critic who was a leading figure in the Southern Agrarian movement and the New Criticism school of literary theory.
In the realm of science, Allen B. DuMont (1901-1965) was an American engineer and inventor who played a significant role in the development of early television technology. He founded the DuMont Television Network, one of the world's first commercial television networks.
Lastly, Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was an American poet and a leading figure of the Beat Generation. His influential works, such as "Howl" and "Kaddish", explored themes of counterculture, drugs, and sexuality, and helped to shape the American literary landscape of the 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Allen
People
Allen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Allen 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
Allen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Allen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 177,027 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Allen 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 1,936 US residents.
Is Allen a common name?
We classify Allen as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 273,148 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Allen most popular?
The single biggest year for Allen was 1951, when 5,203 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Allen is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Allen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 166,926 people with the name Allen, or 55.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #332 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 Allen 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 Allen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Allen appears almost entirely male. Of the 166,924 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Allen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Allen is White at 71.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.8%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Allen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Allen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.6% (119,592 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 Allen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Allen a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Allen 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 Allen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Allen 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 Allen 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 Allen?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.