Feige
A German name derived from the word "feige" meaning "fig".
Name Census estimates that about 169 living Americans carry the first name Feige. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Feige today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Feige births was 1976 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Feige. 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 Feige with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
169
~ 1 in 2,028,132 Americans
Peak year
1976
12 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2015 SSA rank
#17,330
Tracked since 1951
Census
Feige in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 236 people with the first name Feige, which placed it at #34,545 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
#34,545
National first-name rank
People counted
236
236 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
95.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Feige
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Feige is White at 95.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.5%) and Hispanic (1.7%). 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 Feige 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 Feige at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White95.3% · 225
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 4
- Black or African American0.4% · 1
Popularity
Feige: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Feige from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 46 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Feige remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Feige 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 Feige during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Feiges live
Origin
Meaning and history of Feige
The name Feige is of German origin, derived from the Middle High German word "vīge," which means "fig." This name likely originated during the Middle Ages, when many German names were inspired by nature, particularly plants and fruits.
In medieval Germany, the fig tree was a symbol of fertility and abundance, and the name Feige may have been given to children as a wish for a prosperous and fruitful life. The name was also sometimes used as a nickname for someone who lived near a fig tree or worked with figs.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Feige can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, a collection of medieval documents from Saxony, dating back to the 13th century. In this text, a man named "Feige de Liptzk" is mentioned as a witness in a legal document from 1286.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Feige. One of the most famous was Feige Jacobsohn (1755-1828), a German Jewish educator and writer who established one of the first modern Jewish schools in Berlin. She was a pioneer in advocating for the education of Jewish girls and played a significant role in the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment movement.
Another prominent figure was Johann Gottlieb Feige (1707-1765), a German painter and engraver known for his religious and mythological works. He was a member of the prestigious Prussian Academy of Arts and his paintings can be found in several German museums.
In the 19th century, Feige Auerbach (1836-1909) was a German-American businesswoman and philanthropist. She co-founded the B. Auerbach & Son department store in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was actively involved in various charitable organizations.
Feige Baumgart (1837-1904) was a German novelist and playwright who wrote under the pen name "Hans Grasberger." Her works, which often explored social issues and the lives of rural communities, were popular in her time and contributed to the development of German realism in literature.
Lastly, Feige Lehmann (1883-1964) was a German-Jewish actress and singer who performed in several Yiddish theaters and cabarets in Berlin during the early 20th century. She was forced to flee Nazi Germany in 1933 and eventually settled in New York City, where she continued her acting career.
People
Feige + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Feige as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Feige: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Feige?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 169 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Feige 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 2,028,132 US residents.
Is Feige a common name?
We classify Feige as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 186 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Feige most popular?
The single biggest year for Feige was 1976, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Feige is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Feige in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 236 people with the name Feige, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,545 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 Feige 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 Feige?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Feige leans strongly female. 238 people counted with this name were female (98.3%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.7%). 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 Feige?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Feige is White at 95.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.5%) and Hispanic (1.7%). 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 Feige most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Feige in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.3% (225 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 Feige in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Feige a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Feige in the SSA data are female. 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 Feige still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Feige 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 Feige 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 are called Feige?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.