Cress
A feminine diminutive of the herb name cress or Nasturtium plant.
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Cress. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cress today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cress births was 1923 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cress. 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 Cress. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1923
5 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
1975 SSA rank
#5,628
Tracked since 1923
Census
Cress in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 118 people with the first name Cress, which placed it at #50,661 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
#50,661
National first-name rank
People counted
118
118 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cress
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cress is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.6%) and Hispanic (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 Cress 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 Cress at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.3% · 83
- Black or African American13.6% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino8.5% · 10
- Two or more races4.2% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 1
Popularity
Cress: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cress from the 1920s through to the 1970s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 5 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
Cress 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 Cress 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 Cress
The name Cress originated from the Middle English word "cresse," which was derived from the Old French "cresse" and the Latin word "cressa," meaning "watercress." This plant name likely evolved from the Proto-Indo-European root "gres," meaning "to devour" or "to eat greedily," reflecting the edible nature of the watercress plant.
In ancient times, the name Cress was primarily used as a surname or byname, referring to someone who cultivated, sold, or lived near watercress plants. The earliest recorded use of Cress as a given name dates back to the late 16th century in England.
One of the earliest known references to the name Cress can be found in the works of English playwright William Shakespeare. In his play "Henry VI, Part 1," written around 1591, there is a character named Sir Thomas Cressingham, a knight and treasurer of England during the reign of King Edward II.
Another notable historical figure with the name Cress was Cress Delaval (1645-1714), an English landowner and Member of Parliament for Northumberland in the late 17th century. He was known for his involvement in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which led to the overthrow of King James II.
In the 19th century, Cress Merwin Cooley (1828-1905) was an American inventor and businessman who patented several improvements to agricultural machinery, including a successful grain harvester.
One of the most famous individuals with the name Cress was Cressida Dick (born 1960), a British police officer who served as the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, the highest-ranking officer in the United Kingdom, from 2017 to 2022.
Another notable person with the name Cress was Cress Williams (born 1970), an American actor best known for his role as Black Lightning in the television series of the same name, which premiered in 2018.
While the name Cress is not as common as it once was, it has a rich history and has been borne by various notable figures throughout the centuries, particularly in England and the United States.
People
Cress + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cress 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
Cress: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cress?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cress 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Cress a common name?
We classify Cress as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cress most popular?
The single biggest year for Cress was 1923, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cress is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cress in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 118 people with the name Cress, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #50,661 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 Cress 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 Cress?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cress on both sides of the split. Of the 112 people counted with this name, 82 were male (73.2%) and 30 were female (26.8%). 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 Cress?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cress is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.6%) and Hispanic (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 Cress most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cress in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.3% (83 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 Cress in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cress a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cress 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 Cress still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cress 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 Cress 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 Cress?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.