Altair
A masculine Arabic name meaning "the flying one" or "the soaring bird".
Name Census estimates that about 394 living Americans carry the first name Altair. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Altair today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Altair births was 2012 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Altair. 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 Altair with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
394
~ 1 in 869,935 Americans
Peak year
2012
33 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,063
Tracked since 2008
Census
Altair in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 374 people with the first name Altair, which placed it at #25,370 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
#25,370
National first-name rank
People counted
374
374 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
49.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Altair
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Altair is Hispanic at 49.5%. The next largest groups are White (31.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.8%). 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 Altair 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 Altair at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino49.5% · 185
- White31.6% · 118
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.8% · 29
- Black or African American7.2% · 27
- Two or more races4.0% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Altair
Altair is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 397 total registrations, 229 (57.7%) were male and 168 (42.3%) were female.
Altair as a male name
- Ranked #4,063 in 2024
- 26 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (26 births)
Altair as a female name
- Ranked #12,197 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Altair on both sides of the split. Of the 376 people counted with this name, 237 were male (63.0%) and 139 were female (37.0%).
Popularity
Altair: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Altair from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 257 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Altair remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Altair 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 Altair during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Altairs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Altair, while New York, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Altair
The name Altair originated from the Arabic language and has its roots in the medieval Islamic culture of the Middle East. It is derived from the Arabic word "al-tair," which means "the flying one" or "the bird." The name is closely associated with the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, known as Altair.
The earliest known references to the name Altair can be found in ancient Arabic astronomical texts and star catalogs dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries. These texts describe Altair as one of the most prominent stars in the night sky, and it held significant importance in navigation and timekeeping for Arab astronomers and seafarers.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Altair was Altair ibn Abdallah al-Harithi, a renowned Arab mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 9th century. He made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry and the study of celestial mechanics.
In literature, the name Altair gained prominence through the famous 12th-century Persian epic poem "The Conference of the Birds" by Farid ud-Din Attar. In this allegorical work, Altair is personified as a spiritual guide, representing the highest spiritual attainment.
During the Renaissance period, the name Altair became more widely known in Europe, particularly among scholars and astronomers. One notable figure was Altair Altairius, a 16th-century Italian astronomer and mathematician who authored several treatises on celestial mechanics and the motion of planets.
In the 19th century, Altair was the name of a fictional character in the popular French novel "The Extraordinary Adventures of Altair" by Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, published in 1888. The story portrays Altair as a brilliant scientist and inventor who travels to other planets.
Another significant figure bearing the name Altair was Altair ibn Ali, a renowned Sufi mystic and poet from the 12th century. His spiritual writings and poetry had a profound influence on Islamic mysticism and the development of Sufism.
While the name Altair has its origins in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has transcended cultural boundaries and has been adopted by people around the world, drawn to its celestial and poetic associations.
People
Altair + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Altair 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
Altair: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Altair?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 394 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Altair 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 869,935 US residents.
Is Altair a common name?
We classify Altair as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 397 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Altair most popular?
The single biggest year for Altair was 2012, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Altair is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Altair in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 374 people with the name Altair, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,370 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 Altair 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 Altair?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Altair on both sides of the split. Of the 376 people counted with this name, 237 were male (63.0%) and 139 were female (37.0%). 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 Altair?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Altair is Hispanic at 49.5%. The next largest groups are White (31.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.8%). 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 Altair most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Altair in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.5% (185 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 Altair in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Altair a male name?
Yes, 57.7% of people registered as Altair 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 Altair still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Altair 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 Altair 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 Americans are named Altair?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Altair at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.