Ham
A Germanic masculine name meaning "enclosure" or "home".
Name Census estimates that about 1 living Americans carry the first name Ham. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ham today is around 86 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ham births was 1918 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ham. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Ham is about 86 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Hams were born before 1950.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Ham. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
1
~ 1 in 342,754,338 Americans
Peak year
1918
7 babies that year
Average age
86
years old
1929 SSA rank
#4,223
Tracked since 1886
Census
Ham in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 302 people with the first name Ham, which placed it at #29,353 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
#29,353
National first-name rank
People counted
302
302 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
61.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ham
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ham is Asian/Pacific Islander at 61.9%. The next largest groups are White (20.9%) and Black (12.6%). 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 Ham 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 Ham at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander61.9% · 187
- White20.9% · 63
- Black or African American12.6% · 38
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 7
- Two or more races2.0% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Ham: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ham from the 1880s through to the 1920s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 16 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ham 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 Ham 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 Ham
The name Ham is a masculine given name with origins that can be traced back to ancient Semitic languages. It is believed to have derived from the Hebrew word "cham," which means "hot" or "warm." This name has a rich history and has been recorded in various religious and historical texts over the centuries.
One of the earliest and most prominent references to the name Ham can be found in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical account, Ham was one of the three sons of Noah, along with Shem and Japheth. The name is mentioned several times throughout the Old Testament, and Ham is depicted as the father of Canaan, whose descendants were believed to have inhabited the land of Canaan.
In ancient times, the name Ham was also associated with the Egyptian god Ra or Re, who was the sun god and one of the most important deities in ancient Egyptian religion. The name "Ham" was sometimes used as a name for Egypt or the land of the Egyptians, as it was believed to be derived from the ancient Egyptian word "Kmt," which meant "black land" or "fertile land."
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Ham. One of the earliest recorded examples is Ham, the son of Noah, who lived around the 3rd millennium BCE according to biblical chronology. Another historical figure with this name was Ham al-Harrawi, an Arab mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 9th century CE and made significant contributions to the development of spherical trigonometry.
In the 15th century, there was Ham Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan scholar and explorer who traveled extensively throughout the Islamic world and is known for his famous travelogue, "The Rihla." Another notable individual was Ham the Rhymer, a 13th-century Scottish seer and poet who is renowned for his prophecies and ballads.
In more recent times, one of the most famous individuals with the name Ham was Ham the Astrochimp, a chimpanzee who became the first hominid in space during a suborbital flight aboard a Mercury spacecraft in 1961. This historic event paved the way for human spaceflight and made Ham a celebrated figure in the early days of the space age.
People
Ham + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ham 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
Ham: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ham?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ham 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 342,754,338 US residents.
Is Ham a common name?
We classify Ham as "Very Rare". It ranks above 3.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 29 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ham most popular?
The single biggest year for Ham was 1918, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ham is about 86 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ham in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 302 people with the name Ham, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,353 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 Ham 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 Ham?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ham on both sides of the split. Of the 302 people counted with this name, 233 were male (77.2%) and 69 were female (22.8%). 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 Ham?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ham is Asian/Pacific Islander at 61.9%. The next largest groups are White (20.9%) and Black (12.6%). 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 Ham most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ham in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.9% (187 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 Ham in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ham a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ham 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 Ham still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ham 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 Ham 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 are called Ham?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.