Flint
From an Old English word meaning "the gray or yellow rock".
Name Census estimates that about 2,304 living Americans carry the first name Flint. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Flint today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Flint births was 1959 (100 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Flint. 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 Flint with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 148,765 Americans
Peak year
1959
100 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,970
Tracked since 1913
Census
Flint in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,827 people with the first name Flint, which placed it at #8,059 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
#8,059
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,827 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Flint
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Flint is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Flint 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 Flint at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.6% · 1,491
- Black or African American5.0% · 91
- Two or more races4.7% · 85
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 66
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 52
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 42
Popularity
Flint: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Flint from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 622 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Flint remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Flint 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 Flint during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Flints live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. California, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Flint, while Virginia, Oregon, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Flint
The name Flint originates from the Old English word 'flint' which means a hard, sedimentary rock used for creating sparks and lighting fires. It is believed to have derived from the Old German word 'flins' which also meant a type of stone. The name was initially given as a surname to people who lived near areas where flint was found or worked with the rock.
In the early medieval period, the name started being used as a given name, especially in England and other parts of the British Isles. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Flint was in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was listed as a surname for several individuals.
Flint has been a relatively uncommon given name throughout history, but it has been borne by a few notable individuals. One of the earliest was Flint Stow, an English chronicler and historian who lived in the early 16th century and wrote about the history of London.
Another famous bearer of the name was Flint Ledyard, an American explorer and adventurer born in 1762. He was a cousin of the renowned traveler John Ledyard and served as a captain in the United States Navy.
In the 19th century, Flint Clawson was an American settler and pioneer who helped establish the city of Centerville, Utah in 1847. He was born in 1803 and was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Moving into the 20th century, Flint Dille was an American television writer and producer best known for creating the animated series Transformers. He was born in 1924 and passed away in 2016.
Finally, Flint Mackenzie is a contemporary Australian singer-songwriter and musician who has released several albums since the early 2000s. He was born in 1979 and continues to perform and record music.
While not a common name, Flint has had a long history dating back to the Middle Ages and has been borne by individuals from various backgrounds and professions throughout the centuries.
People
Flint + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Flint 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
Flint: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Flint?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,304 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Flint 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 148,765 US residents.
Is Flint a common name?
We classify Flint as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,539 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Flint most popular?
The single biggest year for Flint was 1959, when 100 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Flint is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Flint in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,827 people with the name Flint, or 0.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,059 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 Flint 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 Flint?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Flint appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,825 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Flint?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Flint is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Flint most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Flint in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.6% (1,491 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 Flint in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Flint a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Flint 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 Flint still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Flint 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 Flint 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 the name Flint?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Flint, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.