Beckam
A masculine name of English origin meaning "stream" or "brook".
Name Census estimates that about 961 living Americans carry the first name Beckam. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Beckam today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Beckam births was 2014 (73 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Beckam. 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
961
~ 1 in 356,664 Americans
Peak year
2014
73 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,746
Tracked since 2003
Census
Beckam in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 719 people with the first name Beckam, which placed it at #15,860 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
#15,860
National first-name rank
People counted
719
719 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Beckam
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Beckam is White at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.4%) and Two or More Races (6.8%). 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 Beckam 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 Beckam at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.4% · 600
- Hispanic or Latino7.4% · 53
- Two or more races6.8% · 49
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 8
- Black or African American1.0% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Beckam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Beckam from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 588 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Beckam remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Beckam 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 Beckam during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Beckams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Utah, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Beckam, while Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Beckam
The given name Beckam is believed to have originated from Old English, derived from the combination of the words "bec" meaning "stream" and "ham" meaning "homestead" or "village." This suggests that the name may have initially referred to a settlement near a stream or river.
In its earliest recorded use, the name Beckam appeared in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landowners and properties in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This suggests that the name was in use among the Anglo-Saxon population prior to the Norman Conquest.
One of the earliest documented individuals with the name Beckam was Beckam of Exeter, a prominent merchant and landowner who lived in the late 12th century. Records indicate that he was involved in the wool trade and owned several properties in and around the city of Exeter.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Beckam de Montfort fought alongside Simon de Montfort during the Second Barons' War against King Henry III. He was captured at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 and later executed for his role in the conflict.
During the Renaissance period, a scholar and philosopher named Beckam Wycliffe (1428-1492) gained recognition for his contributions to the field of natural philosophy and his writings on the concept of the Earth's rotation.
In the 17th century, Beckam Cromwell (1599-1658), a distant cousin of Oliver Cromwell, was a prominent military leader who played a significant role in the English Civil War, serving as a colonel in the Parliamentarian forces.
Another notable individual with the name Beckam was Beckam Wilberforce (1759-1833), a British politician and philanthropist who was a leading figure in the movement to abolish the slave trade. He worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the inhumane conditions endured by enslaved Africans and played a crucial role in the eventual passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.
People
Beckam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Beckam as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Beckam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Beckam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 961 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Beckam 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 356,664 US residents.
Is Beckam a common name?
We classify Beckam as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 969 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Beckam most popular?
The single biggest year for Beckam was 2014, when 73 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Beckam is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Beckam in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 719 people with the name Beckam, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,860 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 Beckam 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 Beckam?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Beckam leans strongly male. 704 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 12 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 Beckam?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Beckam is White at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.4%) and Two or More Races (6.8%). 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 Beckam most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Beckam in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.4% (600 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 Beckam in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Beckam a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Beckam 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 Beckam still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Beckam 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 Beckam 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 Beckam?
Want to know how many people have the name Beckam? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.