Gracen
A feminine name of English origin meaning "graceful".
Name Census estimates that about 3,428 living Americans carry the first name Gracen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 63.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Gracen today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gracen births was 2016 (208 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gracen. 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 Gracen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Gracen sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Gracen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.4K
~ 1 in 99,987 Americans
Peak year
2016
208 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,600
Tracked since 1989
Census
Gracen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,865 people with the first name Gracen, which placed it at #5,807 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
#5,807
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,865 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gracen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gracen is White at 79.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Gracen 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 Gracen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.1% · 2,267
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 205
- Black or African American5.7% · 163
- Two or more races5.7% · 163
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 44
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Gracen
Gracen is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,467 total registrations, 1,255 (36.2%) were male and 2,212 (63.8%) were female.
Gracen as a male name
- Ranked #2,600 in 2024
- 51 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (84 births)
Gracen as a female name
- Ranked #4,920 in 2024
- 27 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (126 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Gracen on both sides of the split. Of the 2,861 people counted with this name, 954 were male (33.3%) and 1,907 were female (66.7%).
Popularity
Gracen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gracen from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,526 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Gracen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gracen 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 Gracen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gracens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Gracen, while Illinois, New York, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 55 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gracen
The name Gracen is of English origin, derived from the Old English word "graecen" which means "from Greece." It is believed to have first emerged during the medieval period, around the 12th century, as a surname given to those who had come from or had some connection to the region of Greece.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gracen can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a surname. This comprehensive record of landholders in England at the time lists a certain "Gracen de Athenia," suggesting that the individual may have hailed from the region of Athens in Greece.
In the 13th century, the name Gracen appeared in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire, a series of administrative records maintained by the English Exchequer. These rolls document a "Gracen de Salonika," potentially referring to someone with ties to the city of Thessaloniki in modern-day Greece.
During the Renaissance period, the name Gracen gained some prominence, particularly in literary circles. One notable figure was Gracen Fitzwilliam (1495-1562), an English philosopher and theologian who wrote extensively on the works of Aristotle and Plato, reflecting the enduring influence of Greek thought on Western intellectual traditions.
In the 17th century, Gracen Neville (1620-1683) was a notable English royalist who fought for King Charles I during the English Civil War. His unwavering loyalty to the monarchy earned him the epithet "The Constant Gracen."
Another prominent individual with the name Gracen was Gracen Winthrop (1671-1741), a British colonial administrator who served as the governor of Connecticut from 1698 to 1707. His tenure was marked by efforts to establish better relations with the indigenous populations and promote education in the colony.
While the name Gracen has historically been more commonly used as a surname, it has occasionally been adopted as a given name, particularly in more recent times. However, it remains a relatively uncommon first name, often chosen for its unique sound and connection to the rich cultural heritage of Greece.
People
Gracen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gracen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gracen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gracen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,428 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gracen 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 99,987 US residents.
Is Gracen a common name?
We classify Gracen as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,467 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gracen most popular?
The single biggest year for Gracen was 2016, when 208 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gracen is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gracen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,865 people with the name Gracen, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,807 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 Gracen 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 Gracen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Gracen on both sides of the split. Of the 2,861 people counted with this name, 954 were male (33.3%) and 1,907 were female (66.7%). 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 Gracen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gracen is White at 79.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Gracen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gracen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.1% (2,267 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 Gracen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gracen a female name?
Yes, 63.8% of people registered as Gracen in the SSA data are female. 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 Gracen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gracen 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 Gracen 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 share the name Gracen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.