Coyote
A Native American name referring to the clever trickster spirit in mythology.
Name Census estimates that about 139 living Americans carry the first name Coyote. It is a predominantly male name (96.4% of registrations). The average person named Coyote today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Coyote births was 2022 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Coyote. 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.
People living today
139
~ 1 in 2,465,859 Americans
Peak year
2022
20 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,133
Tracked since 1993
Census
Coyote in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 164 people with the first name Coyote, which placed it at #43,191 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
#43,191
National first-name rank
People counted
164
164 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Coyote
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coyote is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.0%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Coyote 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 Coyote at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.9% · 113
- Hispanic or Latino11.0% · 18
- Two or more races8.5% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native7.3% · 12
- Black or African American3.0% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Coyote
Coyote leans heavily male at 96.4% of total registrations, but 5 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Coyote as a male name
- Ranked #9,133 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (19 births)
Coyote as a female name
- Ranked #15,830 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2022 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Coyote on both sides of the split. Of the 161 people counted with this name, 128 were male (79.5%) and 33 were female (20.5%).
Popularity
Coyote: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Coyote from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 74 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
Coyote 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 Coyote during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Coyotes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Coyote
The given name Coyote is derived from the Nahuatl word 'coyotl', which refers to the wild canine species native to North America. The Nahuatl language was spoken by the Aztec and other Nahua peoples of central Mexico, dating back to the 7th century AD.
Coyote was a prominent figure in the mythology and folklore of many Native American tribes, often depicted as a trickster or a spirit guide. In Navajo creation stories, the Coyote is one of the most important characters, representing wisdom, cunning, and adaptability.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Coyote can be found in the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century ethnographic study of Aztec culture and history written by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún.
Throughout history, there have been notable individuals who bore the name Coyote. One such person was Coyote Ugly (c. 1857-1879), a Native American woman from the Spokane tribe who was known for her unconventional beauty and defiant spirit. She was the inspiration for the 2000 film "Coyote Ugly" and the chain of Coyote Ugly Saloons.
Another famous bearer of the name was Coyote Willard (1899-1989), a Navajo artist and ceremonial singer who played a crucial role in preserving and promoting Navajo culture and traditions.
In the world of literature, Coyote is the name of a character in the novel "Coyote Waits" by Tony Hillerman (1925-2008), a celebrated author known for his mystery novels set in the Navajo Nation.
Coyote Gulch is the name of a renowned hiking trail in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, named after the coyote that inhabits the region.
While the name Coyote is primarily associated with Native American cultures, it has also gained popularity as a given name among non-Native individuals, particularly those who appreciate its connection to nature and symbolism of adaptability and resilience.
People
Coyote + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Coyote 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
Coyote: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Coyote?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 139 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Coyote 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 2,465,859 US residents.
Is Coyote a common name?
We classify Coyote as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 140 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Coyote most popular?
The single biggest year for Coyote was 2022, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Coyote is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Coyote in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 164 people with the name Coyote, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #43,191 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 Coyote 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 Coyote?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Coyote on both sides of the split. Of the 161 people counted with this name, 128 were male (79.5%) and 33 were female (20.5%). 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 Coyote?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coyote is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.0%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Coyote most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Coyote in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.9% (113 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 Coyote in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Coyote a male name?
Yes, 96.4% of people registered as Coyote 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 Coyote still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Coyote 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 Coyote 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 Coyote?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Coyote at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.