Halit
A gender neutral Arabic name meaning "deserving" or "honest".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Halit. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Halit today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Halit births was 2016 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Halit. 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 Halit with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Halit. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
2016
5 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2016 SSA rank
#12,890
Tracked since 2016
Census
Halit in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 168 people with the first name Halit, which placed it at #42,627 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
#42,627
National first-name rank
People counted
168
168 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Halit
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halit is White at 93.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (1.8%). 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 Halit 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 Halit at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.5% · 157
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 2
- Two or more races1.2% · 2
Popularity
Halit: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Halit 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 Halit during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Halit
The given name Halit is believed to have originated from the Turkish language. It is derived from the Turkish verb "hâl etmek," which means "to act" or "to behave." The name Halit was commonly used in the Ottoman Empire and is still prevalent in modern-day Turkey.
Historically, the name Halit can be traced back to the 13th century, during the reign of the Seljuk Empire in Anatolia. It was a popular name among the Turkish nobility and military leaders of that era. The earliest recorded use of the name Halit can be found in historical chronicles and inscriptions from that period.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Halit was Halit Pasha, a prominent Ottoman statesman and military commander who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1628 and played a significant role in the empire's military campaigns against Persia and Poland.
Another famous bearer of the name Halit was Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil, a renowned Turkish novelist, and playwright who lived from 1866 to 1945. He is considered one of the pioneers of modern Turkish literature and is best known for his novel "Aşk-ı Memnu" (Forbidden Love), which explores themes of love, passion, and societal norms.
In the field of Turkish cinema, Halit Refig (1934-2009) was a celebrated actor and director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of Turkish cinema, having directed numerous critically acclaimed films such as "Vesikalı Yarim" (My Half with a Certificate) and "Gurbet Kuşları" (Birds of Exile).
Halit Ayarcı (1923-1994) was a prominent Turkish author and journalist who made significant contributions to Turkish literature and journalism. He was known for his insightful commentaries on social and political issues and his novels, which often explored the complexities of human relationships and modern Turkish society.
Lastly, Halit Kılıç (1935-2007) was a renowned Turkish classical music composer and virtuoso on the ney, a traditional Turkish reed flute. He composed numerous works that blended traditional Turkish music with contemporary elements, and his compositions are widely performed and appreciated both in Turkey and internationally.
People
Halit + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Halit as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Halit: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Halit?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Halit 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Halit a common name?
We classify Halit as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Halit most popular?
The single biggest year for Halit was 2016, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Halit is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Halit in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 168 people with the name Halit, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,627 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 Halit 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 Halit?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halit leans strongly male. 159 people counted with this name were male (97.5%), compared with 4 female bearers (2.5%). 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 Halit?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halit is White at 93.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (1.8%). 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 Halit most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Halit in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.5% (157 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 Halit in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Halit a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Halit 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 Halit still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Halit 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 Halit 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 Americans are named Halit?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.