Heaton
A masculine name of English origin meaning "high town".
Name Census estimates that about 78 living Americans carry the first name Heaton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Heaton today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Heaton births was 2009 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Heaton. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Heaton. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
78
~ 1 in 4,394,286 Americans
Peak year
2009
10 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,810
Tracked since 2004
Census
Heaton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 115 people with the first name Heaton, which placed it at #51,185 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
#51,185
National first-name rank
People counted
115
115 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Heaton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heaton is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.7%) and Black (3.5%). 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 Heaton 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 Heaton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.6% · 95
- Two or more races8.7% · 10
- Black or African American3.5% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 2
Popularity
Heaton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Heaton from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 37 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
Heaton 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 Heaton 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 Heaton
The given name Heaton has its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, approximately between the 5th and 11th centuries. It is believed to be derived from the Old English word "hēah," meaning "high" or "tall," and the suffix "-tun," which denotes a town or settlement. Thus, Heaton likely referred to a person who resided in a high or elevated town or village.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Heaton can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and land tenure in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Several manors and settlements with the name Heaton or variations thereof are mentioned in this historical document.
In medieval England, the name Heaton was often associated with landowners or individuals of some prominence. For example, Robert de Heaton, born around 1220, was a wealthy landowner and benefactor who donated lands to religious institutions in Yorkshire.
During the Renaissance period, the name gained further recognition. John Heaton, a prominent merchant and alderman of the City of London, lived from 1497 to 1573. He was known for his philanthropic efforts, including the establishment of a free grammar school in his hometown.
Another notable figure was Thomas Heaton, an English clergyman and theologian who lived from 1624 to 1698. He was a distinguished academic and served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1688 to 1690.
In the 18th century, Samuel Heaton, born in 1745, was a renowned English industrialist and entrepreneur. He played a significant role in the development of the cotton industry in Lancashire and was instrumental in the mechanization of textile production.
Moving into the 19th century, Mary Heaton, born in 1828, was a celebrated English novelist and short story writer. Her works often explored themes of social justice and the lives of working-class people in Victorian England.
While the name Heaton has its roots in Old English and has been present throughout various periods of British history, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in countries with strong historical ties to Britain, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.
People
Heaton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Heaton 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
Heaton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Heaton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 78 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Heaton 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 4,394,286 US residents.
Is Heaton a common name?
We classify Heaton as "Very Rare". It ranks above 60.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 79 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Heaton most popular?
The single biggest year for Heaton was 2009, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Heaton is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Heaton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 115 people with the name Heaton, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,185 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 Heaton 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 Heaton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heaton leans strongly male. 110 people counted with this name were male (96.5%), compared with 4 female bearers (3.5%). 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 Heaton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heaton is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.7%) and Black (3.5%). 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 Heaton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Heaton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.6% (95 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 Heaton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Heaton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Heaton 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 Heaton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Heaton 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 Heaton 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 the name Heaton?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Heaton on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.