Fitz
Son of a nobleman or member of the gentry.
Name Census estimates that about 640 living Americans carry the first name Fitz. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fitz today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fitz births was 2020 (80 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fitz. 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
640
~ 1 in 535,554 Americans
Peak year
2020
80 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,479
Tracked since 1914
Popularity
Fitz: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fitz from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 303 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
Fitz 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 Fitz during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fitz' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Texas, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Fitz, while Utah, Tennessee, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Fitz
The name Fitz originates from the Norman French "fiz" or "fils," meaning "son." It first appeared in the 11th century as a prefix added to a father's name to indicate a person's paternal lineage. For example, Fitzwilliam means "son of William." This practice was common among the Norman aristocracy in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Fitz became a popular surname in medieval England and was often used by illegitimate children of nobility to indicate their paternal heritage without explicitly naming their father. Many notable families adopted surnames beginning with Fitz, such as FitzGerald, FitzRoy, and FitzAlan.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Fitz as a given name dates back to the 12th century. Fitzherbert de Cheval, a Norman knight, was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II in 1166. Another early example is Fitzpiers, the son of King John of England, born around 1198.
Throughout history, several notable individuals bore the name Fitz as their first name. One of the most famous was Fitzralph, an Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland from 1347 to 1360, who was known for his opposition to the mendicant orders of the Catholic Church.
Another prominent figure was Fitznigel, a 12th-century Anglo-Norman historian and royal treasurer under King Henry II. He is best known for his influential work, "Dialogus de Scaccario," which provided a detailed account of the English Exchequer's administrative practices.
In the 16th century, Fitzjames Stanford, an English Catholic priest and martyr, was executed in 1585 for his involvement in the Babington Plot against Queen Elizabeth I. He was later canonized by the Catholic Church.
Fitzwilliam Darcy, the male protagonist in Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice," published in 1813, is one of the most famous literary characters with the name Fitz.
Lastly, Fitzroy Somerset, a British naval officer and colonial administrator, served as the Governor of Cape Colony (now part of South Africa) from 1819 to 1828 and played a significant role in the development of the colony during that period.
People
Fitz + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fitz 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
Fitz: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fitz?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 640 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fitz 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 535,554 US residents.
Is Fitz a common name?
We classify Fitz as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 689 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fitz most popular?
The single biggest year for Fitz was 2020, when 80 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fitz is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Fitz a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fitz 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.
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.