Australia
Australia is a Latin name meaning "southern territory".
Name Census estimates that about 158 living Americans carry the first name Australia. It is a predominantly female name (96.9% of registrations). The average person named Australia today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Australia births was 1923 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Australia. 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.
People living today
158
~ 1 in 2,169,331 Americans
Peak year
1923
13 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
1923 SSA rank
#4,281
Tracked since 1900
Census
Australia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 445 people with the first name Australia, which placed it at #22,388 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
#22,388
National first-name rank
People counted
445
445 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
50.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Australia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Australia is Hispanic at 50.1%. The next largest groups are Black (42.5%) and White (5.2%). 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 Australia 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 Australia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino50.1% · 223
- Black or African American42.5% · 189
- White5.2% · 23
- Two or more races1.3% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Australia
Australia leans heavily female at 96.9% of total registrations, but 11 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Australia as a male name
- Ranked #4,281 in 1923
- 5 male births in 1923
- Peak: 1910 (6 births)
Australia as a female name
- Ranked #12,312 in 2020
- 7 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1917 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Australia leans strongly female. 419 people counted with this name were female (93.5%), compared with 29 male bearers (6.5%).
Popularity
Australia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Australia from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 77 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
Australia 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 Australia 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 Australia
The given name Australia is a relatively modern geographical name that has its origins in the Latin term "terra australis" meaning "southern land". This name was used by European explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries to refer to the hypothetical southern continent they believed existed in the vast unexplored region of the Southern Hemisphere.
The earliest recorded use of the name Australia can be traced back to the early 17th century when the English scholar Richard Hakluyt, in his work titled "The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation", referred to the "Australis Terra incognita" or the "unknown southern land". This was a widely held belief at the time, fueled by the popular "Terra Australis" theory.
In the late 18th century, the name Australia gained prominence when it was used by the British navigator and cartographer Matthew Flinders to refer to the continent he was mapping. Flinders is credited with popularizing the name and officially proposing it in his book "A Voyage to Terra Australis" published in 1814.
While the name Australia has been used primarily as a geographical term, there have been a few notable individuals throughout history who have borne this name. One of the earliest recorded instances was Australia Banadzew, a Polish noblewoman who lived in the 16th century and was known for her philanthropic work.
Another notable figure was Australia Mendoza, a Spanish explorer and navigator who accompanied Ferdinand Magellan on his famous voyage around the world in the early 16th century. She is believed to be one of the first European women to have set foot on the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
In the 19th century, Australia Felix Jones was a British writer and feminist activist who championed women's rights and education. She was born in 1832 and is known for her influential work "The Enfranchisement of Women".
More recently, Australia Dickson was an American artist and sculptor who lived from 1910 to 1963. She is best known for her bronze and stone sculptures that often depicted scenes from nature and mythology.
Finally, Australia Vázquez Rosas was a Mexican politician and activist who played a significant role in the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. She fought for women's rights and social justice and was a prominent figure in the struggle for equality and democracy in Mexico.
People
Australia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Australia 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
Australia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Australia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 158 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Australia 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 2,169,331 US residents.
Is Australia a common name?
We classify Australia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 350 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Australia most popular?
The single biggest year for Australia was 1923, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Australia is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Australia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 445 people with the name Australia, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,388 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 Australia 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 Australia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Australia leans strongly female. 419 people counted with this name were female (93.5%), compared with 29 male bearers (6.5%). 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 Australia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Australia is Hispanic at 50.1%. The next largest groups are Black (42.5%) and White (5.2%). 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 Australia most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Australia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.1% (223 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 Australia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Australia a female name?
Yes, 96.9% of people registered as Australia 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 Australia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Australia 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 Australia 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 Australia?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.