Heather
A flowering evergreen shrub with pink or white bell-shaped blooms.
Name Census estimates that about 485,383 living Americans carry the first name Heather. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Heather today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Heather births was 1975 (24,367 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Heather. 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 Heather with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Heather is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,477 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Heather have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
485K
~ 1 in 706 Americans
Peak year
1975
24,367 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2007 SSA rank
#1,352
Tracked since 1914
Census
Heather in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 473,466 people with the first name Heather, which placed it at #94 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
#94
National first-name rank
People counted
473K
473,466 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
156.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Heather
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heather is White at 90.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.5%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Heather 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 Heather at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.2% · 427,018
- Two or more races3.5% · 16,430
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 15,214
- Black or African American1.7% · 7,954
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 3,741
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3,109
Gender
Gender distribution for Heather
Out of the 527,210 babies given the name Heather since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Heather as a male name
- Ranked #13,044 in 2007
- 5 male births in 2007
- Peak: 1976 (82 births)
Heather as a female name
- Ranked #1,352 in 2024
- 168 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1975 (24,302 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heather appears almost entirely female. Of the 473,464 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Heather: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Heather from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 204,538 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Heather 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 Heather during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Heathers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Ohio, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Heather, while Wyoming, District of Columbia, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10,268 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Heather
The name Heather is derived from the Old English word 'hæddre', which referred to the flowering evergreen plant found in heathlands and moorlands. It was a popular name in Medieval England, often given to babies born or found on the heaths. The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 12th century.
Heather was a common name among the peasant class in England during the Middle Ages. It gained popularity among the nobility in the 16th century, with the birth of Heather Sutton (1545-1612), the daughter of a wealthy landowner in Yorkshire. Heather Sutton later became a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I.
In the 17th century, Heather Fell (1624-1698) was a prominent Quaker preacher and author from Lancashire, known for her writings on religious tolerance and non-violence. Another notable figure was Heather Howe (1672-1741), a Scottish botanist and one of the first women to be elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The name Heather experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 19th century, particularly in the United States. One of the earliest recorded instances was Heather Longfellow (1808-1892), the daughter of the famous American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Heather Graham (1820-1888) was a Scottish-American novelist known for her historical romance novels set in the Scottish Highlands.
In the 20th century, Heather Squier (1915-2004) was an American artist and illustrator, renowned for her children's book illustrations. Heather Firbank (1888-1945) was a British novelist and memoirist, known for her wit and unconventional lifestyle. Heather O'Rourke (1975-1988) was a child actress best known for her role as Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist film series.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Heather
People
Heather + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Heather 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
Heather: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Heather?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 485,383 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Heather 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 706 US residents.
Is Heather a common name?
We classify Heather as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 527,210 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Heather most popular?
The single biggest year for Heather was 1975, when 24,367 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Heather is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Heather in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 473,466 people with the name Heather, or 156.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #94 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 Heather 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 Heather?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heather appears almost entirely female. Of the 473,464 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Heather?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heather is White at 90.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.5%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Heather most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Heather in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.2% (427,018 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 Heather in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Heather a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Heather 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 Heather still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Heather 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 Heather 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 Heather?
You can see how many Americans are named Heather on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.