Atwood
A masculine name derived from Old English meaning "from the oak wood".
Name Census estimates that about 88 living Americans carry the first name Atwood. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Atwood today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Atwood births was 1914 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Atwood. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Atwood. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
88
~ 1 in 3,894,936 Americans
Peak year
1914
19 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,413
Tracked since 1911
Census
Atwood in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 175 people with the first name Atwood, which placed it at #41,669 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
#41,669
National first-name rank
People counted
175
175 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Atwood
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Atwood is White at 73.1%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Atwood 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 Atwood at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.1% · 128
- Black or African American24.0% · 42
- Two or more races1.7% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 2
Popularity
Atwood: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Atwood from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 114 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
Atwood 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 Atwood during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Atwood
The given name Atwood has its origins in Old English, derived from the elements "æt" meaning "at" and "wudu" meaning "wood". It was originally a surname referring to someone who lived near or in a wooded area. The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 11th century in Anglo-Saxon England.
Atwood gained prominence as a first name during the Middle Ages, particularly among the nobility and landed gentry of England. It was often associated with landowners and those with connections to the forest or woodland estates. The name was also found in medieval literary works, such as the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, where a character named Atwood is mentioned.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Atwood was Sir John Atwood, a 14th-century English knight and landowner who fought in the Hundred Years' War. Another notable figure was Thomas Atwood (c. 1545-1621), an English clergyman and author who wrote several religious works.
In the 17th century, Atwood gained popularity among the Puritans in New England. One of the earliest settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was John Atwood (c. 1600-1644), who arrived in 1635 and became a prominent member of the community in Boston.
Atwood continued to be a respected name in the United States, with several notable individuals bearing it. These include William Atwood (1776-1853), a U.S. Congressman from Virginia, and Isaac Morgan Atwood (1838-1924), an American theologian and educator who served as the President of Drury College in Missouri.
Another famous bearer of the name was Thomas Atwood (1765-1839), an English mathematician and political economist who made significant contributions to the field of economics. He is best known for his work on the theory of population and the concept of the "Atwood machine", a device used to demonstrate the principles of motion and inertia.
While Atwood has remained a relatively uncommon first name, it has been carried by several notable figures throughout history, reflecting its roots in the English countryside and its association with the landed gentry and intellectual pursuits.
People
Atwood + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Atwood 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
Atwood: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Atwood?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 88 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Atwood 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 3,894,936 US residents.
Is Atwood a common name?
We classify Atwood as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 364 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Atwood most popular?
The single biggest year for Atwood was 1914, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Atwood is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Atwood in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 175 people with the name Atwood, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,669 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 Atwood 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 Atwood?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Atwood leans strongly male. 175 people counted with this name were male (94.1%), compared with 11 female bearers (5.9%). 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 Atwood?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Atwood is White at 73.1%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Atwood most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Atwood in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.1% (128 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 Atwood in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Atwood a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Atwood 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 Atwood still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Atwood 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 Atwood 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 Atwood?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.