Hewitt
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "brave wood".
Name Census estimates that about 512 living Americans carry the first name Hewitt. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hewitt today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hewitt births was 2024 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hewitt. 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.
People living today
512
~ 1 in 669,442 Americans
Peak year
2024
27 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,004
Tracked since 1907
Popularity
Hewitt: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hewitt from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 178 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Hewitt remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hewitt 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 Hewitt during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hewitts live
Origin
Meaning and history of Hewitt
The given name Hewitt is an English name derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "hiu" meaning "color" and "witt" meaning "wood" or "forest". This suggests the name originally referred to someone who lived near or in a colorful forest or woodland area.
The name Hewitt dates back to at least the early medieval period in England, with some of the earliest recorded examples appearing in the Domesday Book of 1086 as spellings like "Huiet" and "Huuiet". It was a relatively common name among the Anglo-Saxon population at that time.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name was Hewitt of Northumbria, a nobleman who lived in the 11th century and held lands in what is now northern England. Records show he participated in the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
In the 13th century, a man named Hewitt de Belhus held the manor of Belhus in Essex, England. He was a knight and landowner whose family had taken the name as a surname by that point.
The Old English epic poem Beowulf, dated around 1000 AD, contains a character named "Hæwic" which some scholars believe may be an early version or variation of the name Hewitt.
In more recent history, notable people named Hewitt include Sir Hewitt Myring (1891-1971), a British naval officer during World War I, and Hewitt Robins (1758-1825), an English actor and playwright in the late 18th/early 19th century.
Hugh Hewitt (born 1956) is a contemporary American radio talk show host, political commentator, and lawyer who has written numerous books on politics and law.
People
Hewitt + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hewitt 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
Hewitt: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hewitt?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 512 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hewitt 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 669,442 US residents.
Is Hewitt a common name?
We classify Hewitt as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 955 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hewitt most popular?
The single biggest year for Hewitt was 2024, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hewitt is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Hewitt a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hewitt 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.
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.