Graydon
Gray-haired or graying young man; variant spelling of "Greydon".
Name Census estimates that about 2,439 living Americans carry the first name Graydon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Graydon today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Graydon births was 2010 (100 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Graydon. 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 Graydon with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 140,531 Americans
Peak year
2010
100 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,571
Tracked since 1890
Census
Graydon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,324 people with the first name Graydon, which placed it at #6,783 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
#6,783
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,324 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Graydon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Graydon is White at 88.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Graydon 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 Graydon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.1% · 2,048
- Two or more races5.0% · 116
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 99
- Black or African American1.5% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 9
Popularity
Graydon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Graydon from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 729 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Graydon 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 Graydon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Graydons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Graydon, while North Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 37 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Graydon
The name Graydon is an English given name derived from the Old English words "græg" meaning "gray" and "dun" meaning "hill" or "down". It is believed to have originated as a surname in the Middle Ages, referring to someone who lived near a gray hill or in a village with a similar name.
The earliest recorded use of Graydon as a first name dates back to the 16th century in England. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Graydon Bright, an English merchant and explorer who lived in the late 1500s and is known for his travels to the Americas.
In the 17th century, Graydon Bunbury was a notable English politician and member of parliament who served during the reign of King Charles II. He was born in 1632 and played a role in the Restoration of the English monarchy after the English Civil War.
Another historical figure with the name Graydon was Graydon Bonar, a Scottish Presbyterian minister and religious leader who lived from 1696 to 1762. He was known for his influential sermons and writings on theology.
In the 18th century, Graydon Hepworth was a British artist and engraver who was born in 1744 and is renowned for his intricate copperplate engravings and illustrations.
During the 19th century, Graydon Chalmers was a prominent American lawyer and judge who served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Mississippi from 1868 to 1875. He played a significant role in shaping legal precedents in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
While not a common name throughout history, Graydon has been carried by notable individuals across various fields, reflecting its enduring presence as an English given name with roots in the medieval era.
People
Graydon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Graydon 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
Graydon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Graydon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,439 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Graydon 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 140,531 US residents.
Is Graydon a common name?
We classify Graydon as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,492 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Graydon most popular?
The single biggest year for Graydon was 2010, when 100 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Graydon 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 Graydon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,324 people with the name Graydon, or 0.77 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,783 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 Graydon 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 Graydon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Graydon appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,327 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Graydon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Graydon is White at 88.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Graydon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Graydon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.1% (2,048 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 Graydon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Graydon a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Graydon 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 Graydon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Graydon 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 Graydon 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 Graydon as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.