Booker
A masculine given name derived from the English word "booker," meaning a bookie or bookmaker.
Name Census estimates that about 5,013 living Americans carry the first name Booker. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Booker today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Booker births was 1916 (294 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Booker. 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 Booker with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.0K
~ 1 in 68,373 Americans
Peak year
1916
294 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,286
Tracked since 1882
Census
Booker in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,424 people with the first name Booker, which placed it at #5,120 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
#5,120
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,424 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
74.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Booker
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Booker is Black at 74.6%. The next largest groups are White (18.0%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Booker 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 Booker at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American74.6% · 2,553
- White18.0% · 615
- Two or more races4.6% · 157
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 78
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Booker
Out of the 12,055 babies given the name Booker since 1880, 100.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Booker as a male name
- Ranked #1,286 in 2024
- 152 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1916 (294 births)
Booker as a female name
- Ranked #5,071 in 1925
- 5 female births in 1925
- Peak: 1925 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Booker leans strongly male. 3,374 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 41 female bearers (1.2%).
Popularity
Booker: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Booker from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 2,051 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Booker remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Booker 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 Booker during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bookers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. Mississippi, Alabama, Texas recorded the most babies named Booker, while Oregon, New Jersey, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 255 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Booker
The given name Booker is an English occupational name derived from the Middle English word "boke" or "bok," meaning "book." It originated in England during the Middle Ages, referring to a person who worked as a scribe, book seller, or someone involved in the trade of books.
The earliest recorded use of the name Booker dates back to the 13th century in England. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was John le Bookere, who was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire in 1275.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Booker. One of the most famous was Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), an influential African American educator, author, and leader who founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama.
Another well-known figure was Booker Taliaferro Nutter (1905-1983), an American architect and urban planner who served as the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects' Board of Directors.
In the literary world, Booker Prize-winning author Booker T. Bambara (1938-1995) was a prominent figure in the African American literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
The name Booker also has religious connections. Booker Taliaferro Washington (1837-1924), an African American Baptist minister and theologian, was a prominent figure in the National Baptist Convention.
Additionally, Booker T. Rice Jr. (1924-2011) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist who participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr.
It's worth noting that while the name Booker originated as an occupational surname, it later became a popular given name, particularly among African Americans in the United States, likely influenced by the fame and legacy of Booker T. Washington.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Booker
People
Booker + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Booker 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
Booker: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Booker?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,013 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Booker 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 68,373 US residents.
Is Booker a common name?
We classify Booker as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,055 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Booker most popular?
The single biggest year for Booker was 1916, when 294 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Booker is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Booker in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,424 people with the name Booker, or 1.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,120 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 Booker 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 Booker?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Booker leans strongly male. 3,374 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 41 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Booker?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Booker is Black at 74.6%. The next largest groups are White (18.0%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Booker most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Booker in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.6% (2,553 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 Booker in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Booker a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Booker 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 Booker still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Booker 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 Booker 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 common is the name Booker?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.