Burnham
From an Old English place name meaning "brook homestead".
Name Census estimates that about 16 living Americans carry the first name Burnham. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Burnham today is around 86 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Burnham births was 1918 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Burnham. 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
- • The typical person named Burnham is about 86 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Burnhams were born before 1950.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Burnham. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
16
~ 1 in 21,422,146 Americans
Peak year
1918
15 babies that year
Average age
86
years old
1951 SSA rank
#3,783
Tracked since 1912
Census
Burnham in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 100 people with the first name Burnham, which placed it at #53,336 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
#53,336
National first-name rank
People counted
100
100 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Burnham
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burnham is White at 82.0%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.0%). 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 Burnham 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 Burnham at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.0% · 82
- Black or African American12.0% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 3
- Two or more races3.0% · 3
Popularity
Burnham: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Burnham from the 1910s through to the 1950s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 48 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
Burnham 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 Burnham during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Burnham
The name Burnham is an English name derived from the Old English words "burna" meaning a stream or brook, and "ham" meaning a homestead or village. It originated as a place name, referring to a village or settlement located near a stream or brook.
The earliest recorded use of the name Burnham as a place name dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where several villages in England were listed with variations of the name, such as Burnham, Burnhamme, and Burneham. This suggests that the name was already in use in different parts of England by the late 11th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Burnham was Robert de Burnham, a 13th-century English cleric and ecclesiastical writer. He was a canon of the Diocese of York and is known for his work "Speculum Ecclesiae," a treatise on the organization of the Church.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named John Burnham served as the Archbishop of Glasgow from 1363 to 1386. He played a significant role in the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland during his tenure.
During the Tudor period, Richard Burnham (c. 1520-1587) was an English politician who served as a Member of Parliament for Northamptonshire in 1555 and 1572. He was also a prominent landowner in the county.
In the 17th century, Benjamin Burnham (1636-1688) was an English Puritan minister and author. He served as a chaplain in the English army during the English Civil War and later became a prominent Congregationalist minister in Connecticut, where he wrote several religious works.
Another notable figure with the name Burnham was Hiram Burnham (1771-1835), an American politician and jurist. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1805 to 1807 and later became a judge in the Court of Common Pleas in Oneida County, New York.
These are just a few examples of individuals with the name Burnham throughout history, illustrating its English origins and its use as both a place name and a personal name over several centuries.
People
Burnham + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Burnham 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
Burnham: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Burnham?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Burnham 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 21,422,146 US residents.
Is Burnham a common name?
We classify Burnham as "Very Rare". It ranks above 36.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 130 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Burnham most popular?
The single biggest year for Burnham was 1918, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Burnham is about 86 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Burnham in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 100 people with the name Burnham, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #53,336 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 Burnham 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 Burnham?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Burnham leans strongly male. 92 people counted with this name were male (95.8%), compared with 4 female bearers (4.2%). 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 Burnham?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burnham is White at 82.0%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.0%). 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 Burnham most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Burnham in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.0% (82 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 Burnham in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Burnham a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Burnham 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 Burnham still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Burnham 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 Burnham 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 Burnham?
Want to know how many Americans are named Burnham? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.