Arnold
A masculine Germanic name derived from the elements "arn" (eagle) and "wald" (power, ruler).
Name Census estimates that about 42,702 living Americans carry the first name Arnold. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Arnold today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arnold births was 1924 (2,031 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arnold. 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 Arnold with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Arnold is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 550 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Arnold have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
43K
~ 1 in 8,027 Americans
Peak year
1924
2,031 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,681
Tracked since 1880
Census
Arnold in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 47,510 people with the first name Arnold, which placed it at #940 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
#940
National first-name rank
People counted
48K
47,510 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arnold
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arnold is White at 58.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.0%) and Black (14.2%). 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 Arnold 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 Arnold at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.7% · 27,905
- Hispanic or Latino16.0% · 7,592
- Black or African American14.2% · 6,741
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.5% · 3,577
- Two or more races1.9% · 897
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 798
Gender
Gender distribution for Arnold
Out of the 104,270 babies given the name Arnold since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Arnold as a male name
- Ranked #1,681 in 2024
- 99 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (2,014 births)
Arnold as a female name
- Ranked #8,511 in 1977
- 6 female births in 1977
- Peak: 1921 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arnold appears almost entirely male. Of the 47,513 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Arnold: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arnold 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 19,693 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
Arnold 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 Arnold during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arnolds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Arnold, while Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,905 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arnold
The name Arnold has Germanic origins and is derived from the Old German words "arn" meaning eagle and "wald" meaning ruler or power. It essentially translates to "the ruler of the eagles" or "powerful as an eagle". The name can be traced back to the 7th century and was popular among the Franks and other Germanic tribes.
In the 8th century, the name appears in the Historical Records of the Franks, which mentions an Arnold serving as a military commander under Charlemagne. It also appears in the Annals of Fulda, a medieval chronicle written by monks in the 9th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is Arnold of Soissons, a French nobleman who lived from around 1040 to 1106. He was a prominent figure during the First Crusade and played a key role in the successful siege of Antioch in 1098.
Another notable bearer of the name was Arnold of Brescia, an Italian scholar and religious reformer who lived from around 1090 to 1155. He was a vocal critic of the wealth and corruption of the Catholic Church and was eventually executed for his beliefs.
In the 12th century, Arnold Amalricus was a prominent French theologian and philosopher. He taught at the University of Paris and was known for his controversial views on the nature of the Trinity.
During the 13th century, Arnold Fitz Thedmar was an English chronicler and monk who wrote extensively about the history of London and the reign of King John.
In the 15th century, Arnold of Tongres was a Dutch scholar and humanist who was a pioneer in the study of classical literature and played a significant role in the Northern Renaissance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Arnold
People
Arnold + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arnold 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
Arnold: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arnold?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 42,702 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arnold 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 8,027 US residents.
Is Arnold a common name?
We classify Arnold as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 104,270 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arnold most popular?
The single biggest year for Arnold was 1924, when 2,031 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arnold is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arnold in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 47,510 people with the name Arnold, or 15.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #940 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 Arnold 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 Arnold?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arnold appears almost entirely male. Of the 47,513 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Arnold?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arnold is White at 58.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.0%) and Black (14.2%). 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 Arnold most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arnold in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.7% (27,905 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 Arnold in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arnold a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Arnold 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 Arnold still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arnold 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 Arnold 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 share the name Arnold?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.