Armistead
Old English surname meaning "hermit's homestead" or "dwelling of the multitude".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Armistead. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Armistead today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Armistead births was 1926 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Armistead. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Armistead is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Armisteads were born before 1956.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Armistead. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1926
9 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1957 SSA rank
#4,016
Tracked since 1909
Popularity
Armistead: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Armistead from the 1900s through to the 1950s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 28 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Armistead 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 Armistead during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Armisteads live
Origin
Meaning and history of Armistead
The name Armistead is an English given name with origins dating back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "earm" meaning arm, and "stede" meaning place or town. The name likely referred to a place or settlement where people with strong arms lived or worked.
During the Anglo-Saxon period in England, from the 5th to 11th centuries, the name Armistead was recorded in various spellings such as Armestedde, Armosteade, and Armostead. It was used as a locational surname, referring to people who hailed from a particular place with that name.
One of the earliest recorded uses of Armistead as a given name can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a manuscript record of a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The name appeared as a surname in this document, indicating its existence as a locational name before the Norman Conquest.
Throughout the medieval period, the name Armistead was primarily used as a surname in England, particularly in the northern counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. However, by the 16th and 17th centuries, it began to be adopted as a given name, especially among the English gentry and nobility.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Armistead was Sir Armistead Talbot (c. 1500 – 1585), an English gentleman and landowner from Norfolk. Another notable figure was Armistead Burwell (1585 – 1649), a wealthy planter and merchant from Virginia Colony in the early days of British settlement in North America.
In the 18th century, the name gained prominence with Armistead Churchill Gordon (1720 – 1793), a British naval officer and Member of Parliament. Armistead Thomson Mason (1787 – 1819) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a Senator from Virginia.
One of the most famous individuals with the name Armistead was Lewis Addison Armistead (1817 – 1863), a career United States Army officer who fought for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He is best known for his participation in Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he was mortally wounded.
Other notable individuals with the name Armistead include Armistead Maupin (born 1944), an American novelist and writer best known for his "Tales of the City" series, and Armistead "Arm" Williams Jr. (1914 – 2005), an American jazz musician and bandleader.
People
Armistead + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Armistead 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
Armistead: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Armistead?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Armistead 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Armistead a common name?
We classify Armistead as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 62 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Armistead most popular?
The single biggest year for Armistead was 1926, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Armistead is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Armistead a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Armistead 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.