Doctor
One who heals, cures, or restores health.
Name Census estimates that about 18 living Americans carry the first name Doctor. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Doctor today is around 96 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Doctor births was 1920 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Doctor. 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 Doctor is about 96 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Doctors were born before 1940.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Doctor. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
18
~ 1 in 19,041,908 Americans
Peak year
1920
17 babies that year
Average age
96
years old
1951 SSA rank
#3,440
Tracked since 1880
Census
Doctor in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 754 people with the first name Doctor, which placed it at #15,301 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
#15,301
National first-name rank
People counted
754
754 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Doctor
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doctor is White at 62.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.0%). 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 Doctor 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 Doctor at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.3% · 470
- Black or African American15.6% · 118
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.0% · 83
- Hispanic or Latino8.8% · 66
- Two or more races2.0% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Doctor: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Doctor from the 1880s through to the 1950s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 97 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
Doctor 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 Doctor during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Doctors live
Origin
Meaning and history of Doctor
The name Doctor is not a traditional given name but rather a title or honorific bestowed upon individuals who have earned a doctoral degree or achieved a high level of expertise in a particular field. Its origins can be traced back to the Latin word "doctor," which means "teacher" or "instructor."
The term "doctor" was initially used in ancient times to refer to scholars and teachers who had mastered a particular subject and were qualified to instruct others. In the medieval period, the title became more formalized as universities and institutions of higher learning began awarding doctoral degrees to individuals who had completed advanced studies and demonstrated a high level of knowledge and expertise.
One of the earliest recorded usages of the title "doctor" can be found in the works of ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, who were often referred to as "teachers" or "doctors" by their students and followers. In the Christian tradition, the term "Doctor of the Church" was bestowed upon influential theologians and scholars who made significant contributions to the development of Christian doctrine and theology.
Throughout history, many notable individuals have been recognized with the title of Doctor, including:
1. Avicenna (980-1037 CE), a Persian polymath and one of the most influential philosophers and physicians of the Islamic Golden Age.
2. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE), an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and theologian who was widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of the Middle Ages.
3. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642 CE), an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, and philosopher who played a significant role in the scientific revolution.
4. Marie Curie (1867-1934 CE), a Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity and became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
5. Albert Einstein (1879-1955 CE), a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity and is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century.
While the title "Doctor" is not traditionally used as a given name, it has been adopted as a nickname or informal title by some individuals who have earned doctoral degrees or achieved significant recognition in their respective fields.
People
Doctor + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Doctor as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Doctor: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Doctor?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Doctor 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 19,041,908 US residents.
Is Doctor a common name?
We classify Doctor as "Very Rare". It ranks above 38.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 379 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Doctor most popular?
The single biggest year for Doctor was 1920, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Doctor is about 96 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Doctor in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 754 people with the name Doctor, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,301 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 Doctor 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 Doctor?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doctor leans strongly male. 632 people counted with this name were male (82.5%), compared with 134 female bearers (17.5%). 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 Doctor?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doctor is White at 62.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.0%). 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 Doctor most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Doctor in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.3% (470 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 Doctor in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Doctor a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Doctor 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 Doctor still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Doctor 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 Doctor 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 people share the name Doctor?
Find out how many people share the name Doctor on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.