Fuller
An occupational surname originally referring to a cloth-fuller, someone who thickened wool.
Name Census estimates that about 221 living Americans carry the first name Fuller. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fuller today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fuller births was 1924 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fuller. 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
221
~ 1 in 1,550,925 Americans
Peak year
1924
14 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,516
Tracked since 1886
Census
Fuller in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 346 people with the first name Fuller, which placed it at #26,749 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
#26,749
National first-name rank
People counted
346
346 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fuller
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fuller is White at 73.4%. The next largest groups are Black (16.8%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Fuller 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 Fuller at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.4% · 254
- Black or African American16.8% · 58
- Two or more races3.8% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Fuller: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fuller from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 99 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Fuller remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fuller 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 Fuller 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 Fuller
The given name Fuller has its origins in the Old English word "fullere", which referred to a person who worked as a cloth fuller, responsible for processing and thickening woolen cloth. This occupation was prominent during the medieval period in England and other parts of Europe.
The name Fuller can be traced back to the early Middle Ages, around the 11th century. It was initially used as an occupational surname, indicating a person's trade or profession. Over time, the surname evolved into a first name, particularly in English-speaking regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fuller can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript compiled in 1086 on the orders of William the Conqueror. It lists several individuals with the surname "Fullere" or variations thereof.
In the realm of literature, the name Fuller appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales," written in the late 14th century. One of the characters, the Wife of Bath, mentions a man named "Jakke Fuller" in her prologue.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Fuller. One prominent example is Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), an English churchman and historian known for his scholarly works, including "The History of the Worthies of England" and "The Church History of Britain."
Another notable figure is Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), an English Baptist minister and theologian who played a significant role in the Evangelical Revival movement. His writings, such as "The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation," had a profound impact on Christian thought.
In the field of architecture, Sarah Fuller (1660-1733) was an English architect and one of the first professional female architects in Britain. She is known for her work on several prominent buildings, including the Belvedere at Chiswick House.
Moving to the United States, Melville Weston Fuller (1833-1910) served as the eighth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1888 to 1910. He presided over several landmark cases, including Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine.
Another notable American figure was Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), an architect, systems theorist, author, and inventor. He is best known for his innovative geodesic domes and his concept of "Spaceship Earth," which highlighted the interconnectedness of all life on our planet.
People
Fuller + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fuller 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
Fuller: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fuller?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 221 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fuller 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 1,550,925 US residents.
Is Fuller a common name?
We classify Fuller as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 460 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fuller most popular?
The single biggest year for Fuller was 1924, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fuller is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Fuller in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 346 people with the name Fuller, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,749 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 Fuller 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 Fuller?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fuller leans strongly male. 316 people counted with this name were male (91.6%), compared with 29 female bearers (8.4%). 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 Fuller?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fuller is White at 73.4%. The next largest groups are Black (16.8%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Fuller most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Fuller in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.4% (254 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 Fuller in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Fuller a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fuller 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 Fuller still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fuller 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 Fuller 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 Fuller?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.