Hinton
From an Old English place name meaning "a settlement on high ground".
Name Census estimates that about 194 living Americans carry the first name Hinton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hinton today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hinton births was 1920 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hinton. 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
194
~ 1 in 1,766,775 Americans
Peak year
1920
20 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,947
Tracked since 1908
Census
Hinton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 302 people with the first name Hinton, 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
White
64.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hinton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hinton is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Black (25.2%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Hinton 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 Hinton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.2% · 194
- Black or African American25.2% · 76
- Two or more races5.0% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 3
Popularity
Hinton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hinton from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 135 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hinton 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 Hinton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hintons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Hinton, while North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hinton
The given name Hinton has its origins in Old English, with roots dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era in Britain. It is derived from the Old English words "hine," meaning "servant," and "tun," which refers to an enclosed settlement or farm. Thus, the name Hinton originally meant "the servant's farm" or "the servant's settlement."
The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages when many place names in England were derived from Old English words. Hinton became a common surname, referring to people who lived in settlements with that name. Over time, the surname was adopted as a given name, particularly in areas where the place name was prevalent.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hinton can be found in the Domesday Book, a historical record compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. It documents several settlements with the name Hinton, indicating the name's widespread use during the Norman period.
In the 12th century, the name Hinton appears in the Pipe Rolls, which were administrative records of the English Exchequer. These rolls mention individuals with the name Hinton, suggesting its use as a given name or surname.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Hinton. One of the earliest was Sir Walter Hinton (c. 1285-1362), a prominent English lawyer and Chief Justice of the King's Bench during the reign of Edward III.
In the realm of literature, Geoffrey Hinton (1539-1597) was an English writer and translator who is best known for his work "The Practice of Fortification," which was a significant contribution to military engineering.
Another notable figure was Edward Hinton (1640-1701), a British theologian and philosopher who wrote extensively on the nature of time and space. His works, such as "An Inquiry Concerning the Prodigious Revolutions of the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco," were influential in his time.
In the 19th century, James Hinton (1822-1875) was a prominent English surgeon and philosopher. He is best known for his work on the theory of evolution and his contributions to the understanding of the human mind.
More recently, Geoffrey Hinton (born in 1947) is a renowned British-Canadian computer scientist and cognitive psychologist. He is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of deep learning and has made significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence.
While the name Hinton has its roots in Old English and was initially associated with place names, it has evolved into a widely recognized given name over the centuries. The name has been borne by notable individuals across various fields, including law, literature, philosophy, and science, reflecting its enduring legacy.
People
Hinton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hinton 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
Hinton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hinton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 194 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hinton 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 1,766,775 US residents.
Is Hinton a common name?
We classify Hinton as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 566 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hinton most popular?
The single biggest year for Hinton was 1920, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hinton is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hinton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 302 people with the name Hinton, 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 Hinton 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 Hinton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hinton leans strongly male. 282 people counted with this name were male (92.2%), compared with 24 female bearers (7.8%). 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 Hinton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hinton is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Black (25.2%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Hinton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hinton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.2% (194 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 Hinton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hinton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hinton 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 Hinton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hinton 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 Hinton 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 Hinton as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.