Felton
A medieval variant of the Old English masculine name Felix, meaning "happy" or "fortunate".
Name Census estimates that about 3,382 living Americans carry the first name Felton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Felton today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Felton births was 1948 (127 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Felton. 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.
People living today
3.4K
~ 1 in 101,347 Americans
Peak year
1948
127 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,443
Tracked since 1888
Census
Felton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,700 people with the first name Felton, which placed it at #6,057 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
#6,057
National first-name rank
People counted
2.7K
2,700 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
72.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Felton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Felton is Black at 72.4%. The next largest groups are White (21.8%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Felton 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 Felton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American72.4% · 1,955
- White21.8% · 588
- Two or more races2.9% · 77
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 47
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Felton
Out of the 6,593 babies given the name Felton since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Felton as a male name
- Ranked #10,179 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1948 (127 births)
Felton as a female name
- Ranked #4,443 in 1933
- 5 female births in 1933
- Peak: 1933 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Felton appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,701 people counted with this name, 99.0% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Felton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Felton from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 1,021 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Felton 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 Felton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Feltons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. Georgia, Louisiana, Texas recorded the most babies named Felton, while Ohio, Michigan, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 299 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Felton
The given name Felton is an English surname that has been used as a first name. It originated as a locational surname derived from the Old English words "feld" meaning field and "tun" meaning enclosure or settlement, referring to someone who lived near an open field or meadow.
The earliest recorded use of Felton as a surname dates back to the late 12th century in Northumberland, England. It was a common surname in that region, as well as in other parts of northern England and the Scottish Borders.
In terms of its use as a first name, one of the earliest recorded instances is Felton Hervey, an English poet and playwright born in 1662. He is best known for his tragedy "The Vow-Breaker" and his comedies "The Forced Marriage" and "The Mistake".
Another notable bearer of the name Felton was John Felton, an English Catholic fanatic who assassinated George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, in 1628. He was born around 1595 and executed for his crime in 1628.
In the late 18th century, Felton Elwell was a British naval officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He was born in 1743 and later became a Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy.
During the American Civil War, Samuel Merrill Felton was a Union Army officer who served as a brigadier general. He was born in 1809 and fought in several major battles, including the Battle of Gettysburg.
In the field of literature, Felton Gervais was an American author and journalist who lived from 1914 to 1998. He is best known for his novel "The Confessions of a College Slacker" and his work as a writer for various newspapers and magazines.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the given name Felton, which has its roots in the English language and references to open fields or settlements.
People
Felton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Felton 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
Felton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Felton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,382 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Felton 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 101,347 US residents.
Is Felton a common name?
We classify Felton as "Rare". It ranks above 95.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,593 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Felton most popular?
The single biggest year for Felton was 1948, when 127 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Felton is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Felton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,700 people with the name Felton, or 0.89 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,057 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 Felton 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 Felton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Felton appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,701 people counted with this name, 99.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Felton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Felton is Black at 72.4%. The next largest groups are White (21.8%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Felton most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Felton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.4% (1,955 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 Felton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Felton a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Felton 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 Felton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Felton 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 Felton 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 Felton?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.