Arlington
Town of arling's people or people of Arling's homestead.
Name Census estimates that about 817 living Americans carry the first name Arlington. It is a predominantly male name (93.6% of registrations). The average person named Arlington today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arlington births was 1917 (44 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arlington. 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
817
~ 1 in 419,528 Americans
Peak year
1917
44 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,566
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Arlington
Arlington leans heavily male at 93.6% of total registrations, but 108 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Arlington as a male name
- Ranked #4,566 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1917 (44 births)
Arlington as a female name
- Ranked #12,261 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (14 births)
Popularity
Arlington: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arlington from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 261 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Arlington remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arlington 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 Arlington during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arlingtons live
Origin
Meaning and history of Arlington
The given name Arlington is an English place name that originated as a locational surname derived from the town of Arlington in Devon, England. The name Arlington itself is thought to be derived from the Old English words "Ærlingatun," meaning "the town of the people of Ærla" or "the estate associated with a man called Ærla."
The earliest recorded use of the name Arlington dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was listed as "Alrintone." This suggests that the name has been in use for over nine centuries. The town of Arlington in Devon likely existed before the Norman Conquest of 1066, as many English place names have their roots in the Anglo-Saxon era.
Throughout history, the name Arlington has been relatively uncommon as a given name, although it has been used sporadically. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the first name Arlington was Arlington Spencer (1737-1811), an English landowner and Member of Parliament for Woodstock.
Another notable figure was Arlington Parry (1810-1856), a Welsh-born Australian politician who served as the 11th Premier of New South Wales from 1854 to 1856. In the United States, Arlington Mallery (1828-1908) was a notable Union Army officer during the American Civil War, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Other individuals with the first name Arlington include Arlington Curtiss Winslow (1838-1920), an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, and Arlington Christian Cotten (1859-1944), an American businessman and plantation owner from North Carolina.
While the name Arlington has not been widely popular as a given name throughout history, its unique origins and connection to the English town of the same name make it a distinctive choice with a rich historical background.
People
Arlington + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arlington 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
Arlington: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arlington?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 817 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arlington 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 419,528 US residents.
Is Arlington a common name?
We classify Arlington as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,678 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arlington most popular?
The single biggest year for Arlington was 1917, when 44 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arlington is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Arlington a male name?
Yes, 93.6% of people registered as Arlington 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.
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.