Atticus
Masculine Roman name derived from the Greek word meaning "from Attica".
Name Census estimates that about 17,067 living Americans carry the first name Atticus. It sits at #277 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Atticus today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Atticus births was 2021 (1,321 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Atticus. 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 Atticus with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Atticus is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 112 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Atticus 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
17K
~ 1 in 20,083 Americans
Peak year
2021
1,321 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#277
Tracked since 1881
Census
Atticus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,446 people with the first name Atticus, which placed it at #2,394 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
#2,394
National first-name rank
People counted
10K
10,446 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Atticus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Atticus is White at 70.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.0%) and Two or More Races (9.9%). 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 Atticus 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 Atticus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.2% · 7,328
- Hispanic or Latino15.0% · 1,562
- Two or more races9.9% · 1,031
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 277
- Black or African American1.4% · 147
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 101
Gender
Gender distribution for Atticus
Out of the 17,219 babies given the name Atticus since 1880, 99.3% 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.
Atticus as a male name
- Ranked #277 in 2024
- 1,223 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (1,310 births)
Atticus as a female name
- Ranked #12,287 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Atticus leans strongly male. 10,347 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 106 female bearers (1.0%).
Popularity
Atticus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Atticus from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 8,378 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Atticus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Atticus 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 Atticus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Atticus' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Atticus, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 316 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Atticus
The name Atticus has its origins in ancient Greek culture, stemming from the Greek word "Attikos," which means "from Attica," the region surrounding Athens. It emerged during the classical period of ancient Greece, around the 5th century BCE.
Atticus was a common name among the ancient Greeks, particularly in the Athenian region. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name can be found in the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who mentioned an Athenian named Atticus in his dialogues.
Throughout history, the name has been associated with several notable figures. One of the most famous was Titus Pomponius Atticus, a Roman philosopher, and writer who lived from 109 BCE to 32 BCE. He was a close friend and correspondent of the Roman statesman and orator Cicero.
Another prominent figure bearing the name was Herodes Atticus, a wealthy Roman philosopher and orator who lived from 101 CE to 177 CE. He was known for his patronage of the arts and his efforts to restore and beautify ancient Greek cities.
In the literary realm, the name gained popularity through the character of Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's iconic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," published in 1960. Atticus Finch, a moral and principled lawyer, became a symbol of integrity and justice, contributing to the name's positive connotations.
Other notable individuals with the name Atticus include Atticus Hayter, an American actor and voice artist born in 1979, and Atticus Ross, an English musician and composer born in 1968, known for his collaborations with Trent Reznor on film scores such as "The Social Network" and "Soul."
While the name has its roots in ancient Greece, it has been adopted across various cultures and periods throughout history, often associated with qualities such as wisdom, nobility, and integrity.
People
Atticus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Atticus 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
Atticus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Atticus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,067 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Atticus 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 20,083 US residents.
Is Atticus a common name?
We classify Atticus as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,219 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Atticus most popular?
The single biggest year for Atticus was 2021, when 1,321 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Atticus 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 Atticus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,446 people with the name Atticus, or 3.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,394 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 Atticus 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 Atticus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Atticus leans strongly male. 10,347 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 106 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Atticus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Atticus is White at 70.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.0%) and Two or More Races (9.9%). 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 Atticus most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Atticus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.2% (7,328 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 Atticus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Atticus a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Atticus 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 Atticus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Atticus 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 Atticus 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 Atticus?
Want to know how many Americans are named Atticus? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.