Felty
An English surname transferred to masculine given name of uncertain meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Felty. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Felty today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Felty births was 2000 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Felty. 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 Felty. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
2000
6 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2000 SSA rank
#9,480
Tracked since 1986
Census
Felty in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 143 people with the first name Felty, which placed it at #46,519 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
#46,519
National first-name rank
People counted
143
143 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Felty
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Felty is White at 93.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.8%) and Black (1.4%). 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 Felty 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 Felty at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.7% · 134
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 4
- Black or African American1.4% · 2
- Two or more races1.4% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 1
Popularity
Felty: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Felty from the 1980s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6 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
Felty 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 Felty 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 Felty
The name Felty is an English given name derived from the Old English words "feltan" and "felt," which refer to a type of thick cloth or fabric made from matted wool fibers. This name likely originated in the medieval period, during the height of the wool trade and textile production in England.
In the early Middle Ages, many English surnames emerged from occupations or trades, and Felty may have been a name given to individuals involved in the felting or wool-making industry. The name could have been used to identify a feltmaker, a person who specialized in creating felt products such as hats, cloaks, or blankets.
Historically, the name Felty does not appear to be associated with any notable religious texts or ancient manuscripts. However, it is worth noting that felt and wool-making were important industries in many cultures throughout history, and the name may have had similar origins or variations in other languages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Felty can be found in the parish records of St. Mary's Church in Nottingham, England, where a Felty Wilkinson was baptized in 1632. Another early record comes from the town of Saddleworth in Yorkshire, where a Felty Buckley was born in 1678.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Felty, though it has remained relatively uncommon. One such person was Felty Cuddington (1701-1783), a British merchant and landowner from Gloucestershire, who was known for his extensive wool trading business.
Another individual of note was Felty Greenwood (1777-1848), an English poet and writer from Lancashire, who published a collection of sonnets and odes inspired by the landscapes of the Lake District.
In the United States, Felty Hinton (1823-1901) was a Civil War veteran from Virginia who fought for the Confederate Army and later became a prominent farmer and community leader in his hometown.
Felty Ellison (1866-1932) was an American educator and school administrator from Kentucky, who played a significant role in establishing several rural schoolhouses and promoting literacy in the Appalachian region.
Lastly, Felty Snyder (1910-1988) was a Canadian artist and sculptor from Alberta, known for her intricate wood carvings and sculptures depicting scenes from nature and Indigenous cultures.
While the name Felty has remained relatively rare, its origins and historical connections to the wool and textile industries make it a unique and intriguing given name with deep roots in English history and culture.
People
Felty + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Felty 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
Felty: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Felty?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Felty 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 31,159,485 US residents.
Is Felty a common name?
We classify Felty as "Very Rare". It ranks above 30.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Felty most popular?
The single biggest year for Felty was 2000, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Felty is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Felty in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 143 people with the name Felty, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,519 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 Felty 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 Felty?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Felty leans strongly male. 133 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 3 female bearers (2.2%). 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 Felty?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Felty is White at 93.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.8%) and Black (1.4%). 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 Felty most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Felty in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.7% (134 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 Felty in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Felty a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Felty 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 Felty still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Felty 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 Felty 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 Felty as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.