Cameron
Derived from Scottish Gaelic "cam-shron" meaning curved or crooked nose.
Name Census estimates that about 331,149 living Americans carry the first name Cameron. It sits at #66 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (90.7% of registrations). The average person named Cameron today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cameron births was 2000 (14,361 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Jamie (327,452).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cameron. 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 Cameron with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
331K
~ 1 in 1,035 Americans
Peak year
2000
14,361 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#66
Tracked since 1882
Census
Cameron in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 280,516 people with the first name Cameron, which placed it at #189 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
#189
National first-name rank
People counted
281K
280,516 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
92.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cameron
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cameron is White at 68.1%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Cameron 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 Cameron at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.1% · 191,021
- Black or African American16.1% · 45,247
- Two or more races7.0% · 19,600
- Hispanic or Latino6.6% · 18,586
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 4,023
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2,039
Gender
Gender distribution for Cameron
Cameron leans heavily male at 90.7% of total registrations, but 31,613 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cameron as a male name
- Ranked #66 in 2024
- 4,817 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (12,765 births)
Cameron as a female name
- Ranked #485 in 2024
- 628 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (1,781 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cameron leans strongly male. 252,960 people counted with this name were male (90.2%), compared with 27,554 female bearers (9.8%).
Popularity
Cameron: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cameron from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 107,801 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cameron 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 Cameron during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Camerons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Cameron, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,548 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cameron
The name Cameron has its origins in the Gaelic language, which was spoken in Scotland and parts of Ireland. It is derived from the Gaelic word "cam-shron," which means "crooked nose" or "bent nose." This suggests that the name may have initially been a descriptive nickname for someone with a distinctive nasal feature.
In the Middle Ages, the name Cameron was often associated with the Scottish clan Cameron, which traced its roots back to the 13th century. The Camerons were a influential clan in the Scottish Highlands, particularly in the regions of Lochaber and Argyll. Their ancestral lands were located around Loch Lochy and Loch Arkaig.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cameron is found in the early 14th century, when a man named Sir John Cameron is mentioned in historical records as a supporter of Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence. Another notable early bearer of the name was Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel, who lived from around 1618 to 1677 and was the 13th Chief of the Clan Cameron.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Cameron. These include the 17th-century Scottish soldier Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel (1629-1719), who fought for the Jacobite cause during the Glorious Revolution and the 1715 Jacobite Rising. Another prominent figure was the Canadian politician and judge Sir Matthew Crooks Cameron (1822-1887), who served as a member of the Canadian House of Commons and as the Chief Justice of Ontario.
In the realm of literature, the Scottish novelist and playwright Charles Cameron (1841-1924) was a prolific author of his time, known for works such as "The Crucifixion of Philip Strong" and "The Autobiography of a Butterfly." The name also has associations with the arts, as exemplified by the American actor Cameron Mitchell (1918-1994), who appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout his career.
The name Cameron has also been carried by several notable figures in the world of sports. For example, the Canadian ice hockey player Cameron Frye (1902-1979) played for the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League during the 1920s and 1930s. More recently, the American professional basketball player Cameron Johnson (born 1996) currently plays for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Cameron
People
Cameron + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cameron as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cameron: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cameron?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 331,149 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cameron 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 1,035 US residents.
Is Cameron a common name?
We classify Cameron as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 339,893 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cameron most popular?
The single biggest year for Cameron was 2000, when 14,361 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cameron is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cameron in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 280,516 people with the name Cameron, or 92.88 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #189 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 Cameron 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 Cameron?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cameron leans strongly male. 252,960 people counted with this name were male (90.2%), compared with 27,554 female bearers (9.8%). 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 Cameron?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cameron is White at 68.1%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Cameron most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cameron in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.1% (191,021 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 Cameron in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cameron a male name?
Yes, 90.7% of people registered as Cameron 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 Cameron still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cameron 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 Cameron 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 people have Cameron as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Cameron, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.