Cap
A diminutive form of the English word "captain".
Name Census estimates that about 23 living Americans carry the first name Cap. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cap today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cap births was 1885 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cap. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Cap. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
23
~ 1 in 14,902,363 Americans
Peak year
1885
9 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,601
Tracked since 1881
Census
Cap in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 176 people with the first name Cap, which placed it at #41,537 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
#41,537
National first-name rank
People counted
176
176 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cap
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cap is White at 52.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (28.4%) and Black (9.1%). 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 Cap 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 Cap at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.3% · 92
- Asian and Pacific Islander28.4% · 50
- Black or African American9.1% · 16
- Two or more races4.5% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 3
Popularity
Cap: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cap from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 24 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Cap remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cap 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 Cap 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 Cap
The given name Cap has its origins in the Latin word "caput," which means "head." This name was primarily used in ancient Roman times, often as a nickname or shortened form of longer names such as Capitolinus or Capitonianus.
The earliest recorded use of the name Cap can be traced back to the Roman Republic period, around the 2nd century BC. During this time, it was common for Romans to have multiple names, with Cap being used as a cognomen or an additional personal name.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Cap was Gaius Oppius Cap, a Roman statesman and military officer who lived during the 1st century BC. He was a close friend and adviser to Julius Caesar and played a crucial role in Caesar's political and military campaigns.
In the 1st century AD, there was a Roman philosopher and writer named Lucius Annaeus Cap, who was a contemporary of the famous Stoic philosopher Seneca. Cap wrote several treatises on philosophy, although most of his works have been lost to history.
During the Middle Ages, the name Cap was less common, but it did appear in some historical records from various parts of Europe. For example, there was a Frankish nobleman named Cap who served under Charlemagne in the late 8th century.
In the Renaissance period, the name Cap saw a resurgence in popularity, particularly in Italy. One notable figure was Capoduro da Montefalco, an Italian painter and architect who lived in the 15th century and was known for his frescoes and architectural designs.
Another famous bearer of the name Cap was Capurso da Tralice, an Italian composer and musician from the 16th century. He was renowned for his madrigals and sacred music compositions, which were widely performed throughout Italy during his lifetime.
Moving into the 17th century, there was a Dutch painter named Cap de Hooch, who was known for his genre scenes depicting everyday life in the Netherlands. His works often featured domestic interiors and courtyard scenes, capturing the natural light and atmosphere of the time.
In the 19th century, Cap Anson was an influential American baseball player and manager. Born in 1851, he spent most of his career as a player and manager for the Chicago White Stockings (later known as the Cubs). He was one of the first superstars of professional baseball and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
People
Cap + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cap 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
Cap: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cap?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cap 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 14,902,363 US residents.
Is Cap a common name?
We classify Cap as "Very Rare". It ranks above 42.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 104 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cap most popular?
The single biggest year for Cap was 1885, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cap is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cap in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 176 people with the name Cap, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,537 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 Cap 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 Cap?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cap leans strongly male. 143 people counted with this name were male (81.3%), compared with 33 female bearers (18.8%). 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 Cap?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cap is White at 52.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (28.4%) and Black (9.1%). 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 Cap most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cap in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.3% (92 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 Cap in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cap a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cap 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 Cap still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cap 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 Cap 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 Cap?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.