Comer
One who lives close to a ravine or valley.
Name Census estimates that about 194 living Americans carry the first name Comer. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Comer today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Comer births was 1914 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Comer. 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 Comer is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Comers were born before 1958.
People living today
194
~ 1 in 1,766,775 Americans
Peak year
1914
26 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1969 SSA rank
#4,504
Tracked since 1900
Census
Comer in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 260 people with the first name Comer, which placed it at #32,383 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
#32,383
National first-name rank
People counted
260
260 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Comer
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Comer is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.2%) and Hispanic (1.5%). 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 Comer 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 Comer at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.5% · 186
- Black or African American24.2% · 63
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 4
- Two or more races1.2% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Comer: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Comer from the 1900s through to the 1960s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 198 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
Comer 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 Comer during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Comers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia recorded the most babies named Comer, while Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 89 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Comer
The name Comer is believed to have originated from the Old French word "comere," which means "godmother." This name was commonly used during the Middle Ages in France and other parts of Europe where French was spoken or had cultural influence.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Comer can be found in medieval French literature, particularly in works from the 12th and 13th centuries. It was often used as a character name or as a reference to a godmother figure in these literary works.
In the 14th century, the name Comer appears in several historical records and documents from various regions of France. It was not an uncommon name among the French nobility and upper classes during this period.
While the name Comer has its roots in French, it has been adopted and used in other cultures and languages over time. In England, for example, the name was sometimes anglicized to "Cromer" or "Cromer."
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Comer was Comer de Soissons, a French nobleman who lived in the late 12th century. He was a prominent figure in the court of King Philip II of France and was known for his military exploits during the Third Crusade.
Another notable bearer of the name was Comer de Montpellier, a French scholar and physician who lived in the 13th century. He was known for his contributions to the study of medicine and his works on anatomy and physiology.
In the 15th century, Comer de Bruges was a Flemish painter and illuminator who worked for the Burgundian court. His intricate and detailed illuminated manuscripts are considered some of the finest examples of Flemish art from that period.
Moving forward in time, Comer de La Fontaine was a 17th-century French poet and fabulist, best known for his collection of fables and stories. His work was widely influential and helped to establish the genre of literary fables in French literature.
Finally, Comer de Chateaubriand was a 19th-century French writer, politician, and diplomat. He is considered one of the founders of the Romantic movement in French literature and is particularly known for his novel "Atala" and his autobiographical work "Mémoires d'outre-tombe."
People
Comer + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Comer 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
Comer: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Comer?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 194 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Comer 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 1,766,775 US residents.
Is Comer a common name?
We classify Comer as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 787 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Comer most popular?
The single biggest year for Comer was 1914, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Comer is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Comer in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 260 people with the name Comer, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,383 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 Comer 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 Comer?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Comer leans strongly male. 250 people counted with this name were male (95.4%), compared with 12 female bearers (4.6%). 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 Comer?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Comer is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.2%) and Hispanic (1.5%). 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 Comer most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Comer in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.5% (186 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 Comer in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Comer a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Comer 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 Comer still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Comer 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 Comer 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 Comer?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.