Bishop
An English masculine name derived from an ecclesiastical title.
Name Census estimates that about 5,656 living Americans carry the first name Bishop. It is a predominantly male name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Bishop today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bishop births was 2021 (237 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bishop. 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
- • Although Bishop is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 103 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
5.7K
~ 1 in 60,600 Americans
Peak year
2021
237 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,194
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Bishop
Bishop leans heavily male at 98.5% of total registrations, but 103 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Bishop as a male name
- Ranked #1,194 in 2024
- 171 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (222 births)
Bishop as a female name
- Ranked #9,633 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (17 births)
Popularity
Bishop: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bishop from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,904 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Bishop remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bishop 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 Bishop during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bishops live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Bishop, while Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 104 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bishop
The name Bishop is an English given name derived from the ecclesiastical title of the same spelling. It originated as an occupational surname in medieval England, referring to a person who held the rank of bishop in the Christian church hierarchy.
The word "bishop" itself comes from the Greek word "episkopos," which means "overseer" or "guardian." This Greek term was adopted into Late Latin as "episcopus" and eventually made its way into Old English as "biscop" or "bisceop." Over time, the spelling evolved into the modern English form, "bishop."
In the early days of Christianity, bishops held significant authority and played a crucial role in the governance and spiritual leadership of the church. As a result, the title "bishop" became associated with respect and prestige, which may have contributed to its adoption as a given name.
The earliest recorded use of Bishop as a first name dates back to the 13th century in England. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Bishop of Norwich, a 13th-century English prelate who served as the Bishop of Norwich from 1236 to 1257.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Bishop, including:
1. Bishop Wilkins (1614-1672), an English mathematician, philosopher, and one of the founders of the Royal Society.
2. Bishop Burnet (1635-1715), a Scottish theologian and historian who served as the Bishop of Salisbury.
3. Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753), an Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop best known for his philosophical works on idealism.
4. Bishop Spong (1931-2021), a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church and a prominent voice in progressive Christianity.
5. Bishop Desmond Tutu (1931-2021), a South African Anglican bishop and theologian who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa.
While the name Bishop has its origins in the Christian faith and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, it has since been adopted as a given name by individuals from various backgrounds, transcending its original religious connotations.
People
Bishop + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bishop 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
Bishop: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bishop?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,656 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bishop 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 60,600 US residents.
Is Bishop a common name?
We classify Bishop as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,908 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bishop most popular?
The single biggest year for Bishop was 2021, when 237 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bishop is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Bishop a male name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Bishop 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.
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.