Castro
A Spanish masculine name derived from Latin meaning "castle" or "fortified place".
Name Census estimates that about 6 living Americans carry the first name Castro. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Castro today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Castro births was 1978 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Castro. 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 Castro with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Castro. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
6
~ 1 in 57,125,723 Americans
Peak year
1978
6 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
1978 SSA rank
#5,152
Tracked since 1978
Census
Castro in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 403 people with the first name Castro, which placed it at #24,052 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
#24,052
National first-name rank
People counted
403
403 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
69.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Castro
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Castro is Hispanic at 69.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and White (7.7%). 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 Castro 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 Castro at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino69.2% · 279
- Black or African American16.1% · 65
- White7.7% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.9% · 28
Popularity
Castro: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Castro 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 Castro during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 6 | 0 | 6 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Castro
The name Castro has its origins in the Latin language, derived from the Latin word "castrum," which means "fortified place" or "camp." The name likely emerged during the Roman Empire era, reflecting the military and strategic significance of fortified settlements or encampments.
Castro was initially used as a surname or a place name in regions that were part of the Roman Empire, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal). As a given name, Castro gained popularity in these regions, particularly in Spain, where it became associated with strength, resilience, and a connection to ancestral roots.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Castro can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a Roman general named Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, also known as Quintus Fabius Maximus Castro, in the 3rd century BC. This suggests that the name was already in use during the Roman Republic era.
In the Middle Ages, the name Castro was particularly prevalent in the Iberian Peninsula, where it was borne by several notable figures. One example is Álvaro de Castro, a Portuguese explorer and navigator who accompanied Vasco da Gama on his historic voyage to India in the late 15th century.
The name also gained prominence in the religious sphere, with individuals such as Saint Pedro de Castro, a Spanish Dominican friar and Bishop of Salamanca in the 16th century, bearing the name.
During the colonial era, the name Castro spread to the Americas and other regions of the world through Spanish and Portuguese exploration and settlement. One notable figure was Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer and conquistador born in 1475, who is credited with being the first European to cross the Isthmus of Panama and view the Pacific Ocean from the Americas.
In the 19th century, the name Castro gained further recognition with individuals like Cipriano Castro, a Venezuelan military officer and President of Venezuela from 1899 to 1908, and Fidel Castro, the famous Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as the Prime Minister and President of Cuba from 1959 until 2008.
Other notable figures with the name Castro include Juan José Castro, an Argentine military officer and politician who served as the 13th President of Argentina in the 19th century, and Américo Tomás, a Portuguese writer and poet born in 1894, who is considered one of the most important voices of Portuguese modernism.
People
Castro + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Castro 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
Castro: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Castro?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Castro 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 57,125,723 US residents.
Is Castro a common name?
We classify Castro as "Very Rare". It ranks above 22.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Castro most popular?
The single biggest year for Castro was 1978, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Castro is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Castro in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 403 people with the name Castro, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,052 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 Castro 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 Castro?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Castro on both sides of the split. Of the 399 people counted with this name, 312 were male (78.2%) and 87 were female (21.8%). 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 Castro?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Castro is Hispanic at 69.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and White (7.7%). 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 Castro most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Castro in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.2% (279 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 Castro in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Castro a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Castro 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 Castro still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Castro 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 Castro 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 share the name Castro?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.