Crispin
A masculine name of Latin origin relating to having curly hair.
Name Census estimates that about 1,451 living Americans carry the first name Crispin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Crispin today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Crispin births was 2007 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Crispin. 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 Crispin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 236,219 Americans
Peak year
2007
39 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,893
Tracked since 1915
Census
Crispin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,048 people with the first name Crispin, which placed it at #5,576 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
#5,576
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
3,048 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
59.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Crispin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Crispin is Hispanic at 59.3%. The next largest groups are White (18.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (13.0%). 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 Crispin 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 Crispin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino59.3% · 1,807
- White18.5% · 564
- Asian and Pacific Islander13.0% · 397
- Black or African American6.6% · 201
- Two or more races1.9% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 21
Gender
Gender distribution for Crispin
Out of the 1,805 babies given the name Crispin since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Crispin as a male name
- Ranked #6,893 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (39 births)
Crispin as a female name
- Ranked #6,978 in 1967
- 5 female births in 1967
- Peak: 1967 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Crispin leans strongly male. 2,967 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 82 female bearers (2.7%).
Popularity
Crispin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Crispin from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 260 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Crispin 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 Crispin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Crispins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Crispin, while Georgia, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 165 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Crispin
The name Crispin has its origins in the Latin name Crispinus, which was derived from the word "crispus" meaning "curled" or "curly-haired". It was a common Roman family name used during ancient times.
The name rose to prominence during the early Christian era, largely due to the veneration of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian, two Roman brothers who were martyred around 287 CE. According to legend, they were shoemakers who traveled to Gaul (modern-day France) to preach Christianity and were ultimately executed for their faith.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Crispin comes from the early medieval period. In the year 1415, the Battle of Agincourt, a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War, took place on St. Crispin's Day, which is celebrated on October 25th. This significant historical event was immortalized in William Shakespeare's play "Henry V", where the famous St. Crispin's Day speech rallied the outnumbered English troops before their triumph over the French army.
Among notable individuals named Crispin throughout history are Crispin de Passe (1565-1637), a Dutch engraver and print publisher who produced numerous portraits of prominent figures during the Dutch Golden Age. Another was Crispin de Milthene (1596-1688), a French playwright and poet who wrote several tragedies and comedies during the 17th century.
In the realm of art, Crispin van den Broeck (1523-1591) was a Flemish painter known for his religious works and portraits. Meanwhile, in literature, Crispin Hellion Craven (1909-1976) was an American novelist and screenwriter who wrote several successful novels and adapted some of them for the big screen.
More recently, Crispin Glover (born 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker, and author, best known for his roles in films such as "Back to the Future" and his unique and eccentric persona. His distinctive name has contributed to his iconic status in popular culture.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Crispin
People
Crispin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Crispin 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
Crispin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Crispin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,451 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Crispin 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 236,219 US residents.
Is Crispin a common name?
We classify Crispin as "Rare". It ranks above 92.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,805 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Crispin most popular?
The single biggest year for Crispin was 2007, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Crispin is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Crispin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,048 people with the name Crispin, or 1.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,576 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 Crispin 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 Crispin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Crispin leans strongly male. 2,967 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 82 female bearers (2.7%). 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 Crispin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Crispin is Hispanic at 59.3%. The next largest groups are White (18.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (13.0%). 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 Crispin most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Crispin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.3% (1,807 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 Crispin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Crispin a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Crispin 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 Crispin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Crispin 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 Crispin 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 Crispin?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.