Asenath
An Egyptian name meaning "belonging to the goddess Neith".
Name Census estimates that about 341 living Americans carry the first name Asenath. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Asenath today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Asenath births was 1941 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Asenath. 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 Asenath with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
341
~ 1 in 1,005,145 Americans
Peak year
1941
40 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,981
Tracked since 1896
Census
Asenath in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 419 people with the first name Asenath, which placed it at #23,378 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
#23,378
National first-name rank
People counted
419
419 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
38.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Asenath
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Asenath is White at 38.2%. The next largest groups are Black (31.3%) and Hispanic (18.6%). 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 Asenath 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 Asenath at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White38.2% · 160
- Black or African American31.3% · 131
- Hispanic or Latino18.6% · 78
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 27
- Two or more races4.8% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Popularity
Asenath: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Asenath from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 164 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Asenath remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Asenath 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 Asenath during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Asenaths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the most babies named Asenath, while Texas, Michigan, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Asenath
The name Asenath has its origins in ancient Egyptian culture, tracing back to around the 13th century BC. It is derived from the Egyptian words "ns-nt", which translate to "she belongs to Neith". Neith was an ancient Egyptian goddess, considered a guardian and mother deity.
One of the earliest mentions of the name Asenath is found in the Book of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible. Asenath was the wife of Joseph, the son of Jacob. She was the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On, and married Joseph after he was released from prison in Egypt.
In the 3rd century AD, there was a Christian martyr named Asenath who was executed during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian for her refusal to renounce her faith. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The name Asenath was relatively uncommon throughout much of history, but there are a few notable figures who bore this name. One was Asenath Barzani (1590-1670), a Kurdish Jewish woman who is believed to have been the first female religious scholar in the Kurdish Jewish community.
Another notable Asenath was Asenath Nicholson (1792-1855), an Irish activist and educator who founded several schools in New York City and advocated for the education of underprivileged children.
In the literary world, Asenath Waite (1809-1886) was an American writer and poet who published several books of poetry and prose in the mid-19th century.
One of the most famous historical figures named Asenath was Asenath Hatch Damon (1809-1903), a pioneering female surveyor and mapmaker in Hawaii. She was the first woman to achieve this distinction in the Hawaiian Islands.
Lastly, Asenath Nicholson (1792-1855) was an Irish-American educator who founded several schools in New York City and advocated for the education of underprivileged children, making a significant impact on the city's education system in the early 19th century.
People
Asenath + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Asenath 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
Asenath: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Asenath?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 341 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Asenath 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 1,005,145 US residents.
Is Asenath a common name?
We classify Asenath as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 482 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Asenath most popular?
The single biggest year for Asenath was 1941, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Asenath is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Asenath in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 419 people with the name Asenath, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,378 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 Asenath 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 Asenath?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Asenath leans strongly female. 421 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 5 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Asenath?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Asenath is White at 38.2%. The next largest groups are Black (31.3%) and Hispanic (18.6%). 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 Asenath most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Asenath in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.2% (160 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 Asenath in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Asenath a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Asenath in the SSA data are female. 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 Asenath still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Asenath 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 Asenath 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 Asenath?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.