Asher
A male given name of Hebrew origin meaning "fortunate" or "blessed".
Roughly 103,756 people in the United States go by the first name Asher, which ranks #20 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It is a predominantly male name (98.7% of registrations). The average person named Asher today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Asher births was 2022 (8,519 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Ashton (103,669).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Asher. 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 Asher with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Asher is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,396 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Asher is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
104K
~ 1 in 3,303 Americans
Peak year
2022
8,519 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#20
Tracked since 1880
Census
Asher in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 61,309 people with the first name Asher, which placed it at #798 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
#798
National first-name rank
People counted
61K
61,309 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
20.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Asher
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Asher is White at 73.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Two or More Races (7.8%). 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 Asher 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 Asher at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.9% · 45,298
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 5,743
- Two or more races7.8% · 4,798
- Black or African American4.6% · 2,839
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 2,188
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 443
Gender
Gender distribution for Asher
Asher leans heavily male at 98.7% of total registrations, but 1,396 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Asher as a male name
- Ranked #20 in 2024
- 8,123 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (8,410 births)
Asher as a female name
- Ranked #2,501 in 2024
- 71 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (109 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Asher leans strongly male. 60,268 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 1,039 female bearers (1.7%).
Popularity
Asher: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Asher from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 49,161 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Asher 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 Asher during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ashers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Asher, while Rhode Island, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,000 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Asher
The name Asher has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is derived from the Hebrew word 'asher', which means 'happy' or 'blessed'. The name first appeared in the Bible, specifically in the Book of Genesis, where it refers to one of the sons of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Leah.
The biblical figure of Asher was born around 1900 BCE and was the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the biblical account, Leah named him Asher, saying "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed." This suggests that the name was chosen to express joy and gratitude.
Throughout history, the name Asher has been used primarily within Jewish and Christian communities, though it has also been adopted by other cultures. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name outside of biblical literature can be found in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, who lived in the 1st century CE.
Notable individuals named Asher throughout history include:
1. Asher ben Yehiel (c. 1250-1327), a prominent Jewish scholar and biblical commentator from Spain.
2. Asher Lev (c. 1653-1714), a renowned scribe and calligrapher from Poland.
3. Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (1856-1927), a Zionist leader and Hebrew writer better known as Ahad Ha'am.
4. Asher Lopatin (1901-1981), a Jewish artist and sculptor from Russia.
5. Asher Edelman (born 1939), an American businessman and financial trader.
The name Asher has maintained its popularity within Jewish communities and has also gained wider appeal in recent times. Its meaning of happiness and blessing has contributed to its enduring use as a given name for boys.
People
Asher + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Asher 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
Asher: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Asher?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103,756 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Asher 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 3,303 US residents.
Is Asher a common name?
We classify Asher as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 105,094 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Asher most popular?
The single biggest year for Asher was 2022, when 8,519 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Asher is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Asher in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 61,309 people with the name Asher, or 20.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #798 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 Asher 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 Asher?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Asher leans strongly male. 60,268 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 1,039 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Asher?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Asher is White at 73.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Two or More Races (7.8%). 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 Asher most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Asher in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.9% (45,298 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 Asher in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Asher a male name?
Yes, 98.7% of people registered as Asher 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 Asher still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Asher 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 Asher 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 Americans are named Asher?
See how many people have the name Asher on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.