Eton
English name derived from the town name "Eton," meaning a place of wealthy nobility.
Name Census estimates that about 32 living Americans carry the first name Eton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Eton today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eton births was 2014 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eton. 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 Eton. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
32
~ 1 in 10,711,073 Americans
Peak year
2014
6 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2018 SSA rank
#12,745
Tracked since 1988
Census
Eton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 208 people with the first name Eton, which placed it at #37,486 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
#37,486
National first-name rank
People counted
208
208 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eton is Black at 47.1%. The next largest groups are White (23.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.3%). 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 Eton 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 Eton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.1% · 98
- White23.1% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander18.3% · 38
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 15
- Two or more races4.3% · 9
Popularity
Eton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eton from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 17 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
Eton 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 Eton 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 Eton
The name Eton is derived from the Old English word "ey-tun," which means "island estate" or "river island." It originated in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. The name was likely given to settlements or estates located on an island or a peninsula surrounded by water or wetlands.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Eton can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of land and property commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The entry refers to the town of Eton in Berkshire, which later became home to the renowned Eton College, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Eton. One of the earliest was Eton de Woodstock, a 13th-century English nobleman who lived from around 1240 to 1292. He was the eldest son of King Edward I and his wife, Eleanor of Castile.
Another prominent figure was Sir Eton Brydges (1617-1674), an English politician and member of Parliament during the English Civil War. He actively supported the Royalist cause and was rewarded with a baronetcy by King Charles II after the Restoration.
In the world of literature, Eton Stannard (1891-1957) was an American poet and novelist known for his works such as "The Daughter of Sequoia" and "The Greeks in Blunderland." He was also a professor at Yale University and served in World War I.
In the field of sports, Eton Churchill (1906-1980) was a British rower who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, where he won a silver medal as part of the British coxless four team.
Finally, Eton Gilcrease (1894-1975) was an American artist and entrepreneur. He founded the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which houses one of the largest collections of Native American art and artifacts in the world.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have carried the name Eton throughout history, reflecting its enduring presence and significance across various fields and cultures.
People
Eton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eton as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Eton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eton 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 10,711,073 US residents.
Is Eton a common name?
We classify Eton as "Very Rare". It ranks above 47.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 32 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eton most popular?
The single biggest year for Eton was 2014, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eton is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 208 people with the name Eton, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,486 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 Eton 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 Eton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eton leans strongly male. 198 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 6 female bearers (2.9%). 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 Eton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eton is Black at 47.1%. The next largest groups are White (23.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.3%). 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 Eton most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Eton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.1% (98 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 Eton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Eton 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 Eton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eton 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 Eton 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 have Eton as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.