Blaise
One of French origin, meaning "lisping" or "stammering".
Name Census estimates that about 8,861 living Americans carry the first name Blaise. It is a predominantly male name (91.0% of registrations). The average person named Blaise today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Blaise births was 2015 (307 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Blaise. 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 Blaise with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.9K
~ 1 in 38,681 Americans
Peak year
2015
307 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,105
Tracked since 1913
Census
Blaise in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,701 people with the first name Blaise, which placed it at #2,934 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
#2,934
National first-name rank
People counted
7.7K
7,701 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Blaise
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Blaise is White at 72.1%. The next largest groups are Black (10.2%) and Hispanic (7.8%). 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 Blaise 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 Blaise at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.1% · 5,556
- Black or African American10.2% · 788
- Hispanic or Latino7.8% · 604
- Two or more races6.6% · 507
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 196
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 50
Gender
Gender distribution for Blaise
Blaise leans heavily male at 91.0% of total registrations, but 845 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Blaise as a male name
- Ranked #1,105 in 2024
- 193 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (283 births)
Blaise as a female name
- Ranked #3,696 in 2024
- 41 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (52 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Blaise leans strongly male. 7,042 people counted with this name were male (91.4%), compared with 660 female bearers (8.6%).
Popularity
Blaise: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Blaise from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,582 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Blaise remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Blaise 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 Blaise during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Blaises live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, California recorded the most babies named Blaise, while Utah, South Dakota, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 142 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Blaise
The name Blaise is a French masculine given name derived from the Latin Blasius, which in turn comes from the Greek name Βλάσιος (Blasios). The Greek name is thought to be derived from the ancient Greek word βλάξ (blax), meaning "sluggish" or "dull".
The name Blaise was popular among early Christian saints and martyrs. One of the most notable figures associated with this name is Saint Blaise, a 4th century Armenian bishop and martyr who is the patron saint of throat illnesses and wool workers. The cult of Saint Blaise spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, helping to popularize the name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Blaise can be found in the 7th century hagiography of Saint Blaise written by a monk named Hubert. This text details the life and martyrdom of the saint, who was tortured and executed for refusing to renounce his Christian faith during the Roman persecution of Christians.
In the 11th century, the French philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard wrote a hymn in honor of Saint Blaise, further contributing to the name's popularity in France. Another notable figure named Blaise was the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), who made significant contributions to the fields of mathematics, physics, and philosophy.
Other historical figures with the name Blaise include Blaise de Monluc (1502-1577), a French military officer and memorialist during the French Wars of Religion, and Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961), a Swiss novelist and poet who was a prominent figure in the early 20th century modernist movement.
The name Blaise has also been borne by several saints and religious figures throughout history, such as Blessed Blaise of Arles (12th century), Blaise of Ragusa (16th century), and Blaise Vaast (17th century), a French Jesuit missionary who worked in Canada.
People
Blaise + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Blaise 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
Blaise: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Blaise?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,861 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Blaise 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 38,681 US residents.
Is Blaise a common name?
We classify Blaise as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,398 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Blaise most popular?
The single biggest year for Blaise was 2015, when 307 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Blaise is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Blaise in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,701 people with the name Blaise, or 2.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,934 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 Blaise 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 Blaise?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Blaise leans strongly male. 7,042 people counted with this name were male (91.4%), compared with 660 female bearers (8.6%). 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 Blaise?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Blaise is White at 72.1%. The next largest groups are Black (10.2%) and Hispanic (7.8%). 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 Blaise most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Blaise in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.1% (5,556 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 Blaise in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Blaise a male name?
Yes, 91.0% of people registered as Blaise 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 Blaise still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Blaise 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 Blaise 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 Blaise?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.