Burgess
An English masculine given name derived from the Old French words "bourg" (town) and "gesir" (to dwell).
Name Census estimates that about 442 living Americans carry the first name Burgess. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Burgess today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Burgess births was 1922 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Burgess. 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
442
~ 1 in 775,462 Americans
Peak year
1922
28 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2010 SSA rank
#9,846
Tracked since 1884
Census
Burgess in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 559 people with the first name Burgess, which placed it at #19,094 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
#19,094
National first-name rank
People counted
559
559 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Burgess
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burgess is White at 70.1%. The next largest groups are Black (20.8%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (3.6%). 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 Burgess 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 Burgess at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.1% · 392
- Black or African American20.8% · 116
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.6% · 20
- Two or more races2.7% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 8
Popularity
Burgess: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Burgess from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 208 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
Burgess 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 Burgess during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Burgess' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia recorded the most babies named Burgess, while West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Burgess
The name Burgess has its origins in the Old French language and dates back to the Middle Ages. It was originally derived from the word "burgeis," which referred to a inhabitant of a town or borough. The name likely emerged as a way to distinguish those living within the fortified walls of a town or city from the rural population.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Burgess can be traced back to medieval England, where it was often used as a surname to denote one's occupation or place of residence. One of the earliest documented examples is William le Burgess, who was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire in 1221.
Throughout history, the name Burgess has been associated with several notable figures. One of the most prominent was Guy Burgess (1911-1963), a British diplomat and member of the infamous Cambridge Five spy ring that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early stages of the Cold War.
Another individual with the name Burgess who left a lasting impact was Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), a renowned English writer and author of the classic novel "A Clockwork Orange." His works explored themes of free will, morality, and the darker aspects of human nature.
In the realm of politics, Jesse Burgess Thomas (1777-1853) was a prominent American politician who served as the 18th Governor of Indiana from 1837 to 1840. He played a significant role in the state's early development and helped establish its public education system.
The name Burgess also has connections to the world of art and entertainment. Thomas Burgess (1784-1807) was an English painter and engraver known for his landscape paintings and depictions of rural life in the early 19th century.
Lastly, Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) was an American author, artist, and humorist best known for coining the popular nonsense phrase "The Purple Cow" and for his children's book "The Burgess Bird Book for Children."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Burgess
People
Burgess + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Burgess 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
Burgess: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Burgess?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 442 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Burgess 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 775,462 US residents.
Is Burgess a common name?
We classify Burgess as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,089 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Burgess most popular?
The single biggest year for Burgess was 1922, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Burgess is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Burgess in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 559 people with the name Burgess, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,094 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 Burgess 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 Burgess?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Burgess leans strongly male. 506 people counted with this name were male (89.4%), compared with 60 female bearers (10.6%). 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 Burgess?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burgess is White at 70.1%. The next largest groups are Black (20.8%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (3.6%). 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 Burgess most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Burgess in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.1% (392 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 Burgess in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Burgess a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Burgess 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 Burgess still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Burgess 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 Burgess 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 Burgess?
Want to know how many Americans are named Burgess? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.