Arend
A Germanic masculine name deriving from "arn" meaning eagle.
Name Census estimates that about 118 living Americans carry the first name Arend. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Arend today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arend births was 1978 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arend. 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
118
~ 1 in 2,904,698 Americans
Peak year
1978
13 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2012 SSA rank
#12,407
Tracked since 1915
Census
Arend in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 282 people with the first name Arend, which placed it at #30,717 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
#30,717
National first-name rank
People counted
282
282 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arend
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arend is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.1%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Arend 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 Arend at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.0% · 234
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 20
- Two or more races3.9% · 11
- Black or African American3.2% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 8
Popularity
Arend: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arend from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 52 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arend 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 Arend during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arends live
Origin
Meaning and history of Arend
The name Arend originates from the Dutch language and has its roots in the Old Germanic word "arn," meaning "eagle." It is believed to have emerged as a given name in the Netherlands and neighboring regions during the Middle Ages.
In the early medieval period, the name Arend was closely associated with strength, courage, and nobility, traits often attributed to the majestic eagle. This symbolic connection likely contributed to its popularity among the Dutch nobility and warrior classes.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Arend can be found in a 12th-century Dutch chronicle, where it refers to a prominent nobleman named Arend van Amstel, who played a significant role in the history of the city of Amsterdam.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Arend. Among them is Arend Dickmann (1554-1629), a renowned Dutch painter and engraver who was influential in the early stages of the Dutch Golden Age of painting. Another notable figure is Arend Fokke Simonsz (1755-1812), a Dutch admiral who served in the Batavian Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
In the 19th century, Arend Theodoor Bijlsma (1828-1890) was a prominent Dutch lawyer and politician who served as the Minister of Justice in the Netherlands from 1877 to 1879. Arend Lijphart (1936-2011), a renowned Dutch-American political scientist, is also noteworthy for his contributions to the study of consociational democracy and electoral systems.
Arend Hendrik Potgieter (1792-1852), a Voortrekker leader and military commander in the Great Trek of the Boers in South Africa, is another significant figure associated with the name Arend. His leadership played a crucial role in the establishment of the Boer republics in the region.
While the name Arend has its origins in the Netherlands, it has also been adopted and adapted in various cultures and languages over time, reflecting the influence and migration of peoples across regions and continents.
People
Arend + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arend 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
Arend: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arend?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 118 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arend 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 2,904,698 US residents.
Is Arend a common name?
We classify Arend as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 138 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arend most popular?
The single biggest year for Arend was 1978, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arend is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arend in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 282 people with the name Arend, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,717 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 Arend 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 Arend?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arend leans strongly male. 285 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 4 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Arend?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arend is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.1%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Arend most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arend in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (234 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 Arend in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arend a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arend 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 Arend still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arend 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 Arend 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 are named Arend?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.