Chief
A masculine given name of Native American origin meaning "leader".
Name Census estimates that about 325 living Americans carry the first name Chief. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Chief today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chief births was 2020 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chief. 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 Chief with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
325
~ 1 in 1,054,629 Americans
Peak year
2020
34 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,080
Tracked since 1919
Census
Chief in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 331 people with the first name Chief, which placed it at #27,567 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
#27,567
National first-name rank
People counted
331
331 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
31.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chief
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chief is Black at 31.7%. The next largest groups are White (29.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (14.5%). 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 Chief 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 Chief at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American31.7% · 105
- White29.6% · 98
- American Indian and Alaska Native14.5% · 48
- Two or more races9.7% · 32
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 17
Popularity
Chief: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chief from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 149 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chief 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 Chief during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chiefs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Chief
The name Chief is an English word derived from the Old French "chef", meaning head or leader. It originated as a title or rank rather than a given name, referring to the highest-ranking member or leader of a group, organization, or community.
In its earliest usage, the term "chief" was often associated with the leaders of Native American tribes and communities. Many historical records and accounts from the colonial era in North America mention various tribal chiefs and their interactions with European settlers and explorers.
One of the earliest recorded examples of a Native American chief is Powhatan, who was the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy in present-day Virginia. He lived from around 1550 to 1618 and had interactions with the English colonists at Jamestown, including his daughter Pocahontas.
Another notable chief from history is Sitting Bull, who was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader and holy man. He lived from 1831 to 1890 and was instrumental in the victory over the U.S. Army at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
In European history, the term "chief" was sometimes used as a title or rank, particularly in military contexts. One example is Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who was often referred to as the "Chief" during his military campaigns, including his pivotal role in the Napoleonic Wars. He lived from 1769 to 1852.
The name Chief also appears in various works of literature and popular culture throughout history. In the novel "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, published in 1954, one of the main characters is a young boy named Ralph, who is elected as the chief of a group of stranded children on a deserted island.
Another famous fictional character with the name Chief is Chief Bromden from the novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey, published in 1962. Chief Bromden is a Native American patient in a psychiatric hospital and serves as the narrator of the story.
While the name Chief has its roots as a title or rank, it has also been adopted as a given name in some cases, particularly in English-speaking cultures. However, it remains relatively uncommon as a first name compared to its usage as a title or descriptor.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Chief
People
Chief + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chief 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
Chief: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chief?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 325 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chief 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 1,054,629 US residents.
Is Chief a common name?
We classify Chief as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 332 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chief most popular?
The single biggest year for Chief was 2020, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chief is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chief in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 331 people with the name Chief, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,567 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 Chief 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 Chief?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chief leans strongly male. 314 people counted with this name were male (95.7%), compared with 14 female bearers (4.3%). 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 Chief?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chief is Black at 31.7%. The next largest groups are White (29.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (14.5%). 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 Chief most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Chief in the 2020 Census, accounting for 31.7% (105 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 Chief in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chief a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Chief 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 Chief still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chief 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 Chief 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 Chief?
See how many people have the name Chief on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.