Hoke
An Anglicized spelling of a variant form of the given name Hosea.
Name Census estimates that about 173 living Americans carry the first name Hoke. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hoke today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hoke births was 1910 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hoke. 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 Hoke is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Hokes were born before 1968.
People living today
173
~ 1 in 1,981,239 Americans
Peak year
1910
19 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
2021 SSA rank
#11,255
Tracked since 1900
Census
Hoke in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 286 people with the first name Hoke, which placed it at #30,451 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
#30,451
National first-name rank
People counted
286
286 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hoke
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hoke is White at 84.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.9%) and Black (4.5%). 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 Hoke 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 Hoke at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.6% · 242
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.9% · 14
- Black or African American4.5% · 13
- Two or more races3.8% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Popularity
Hoke: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hoke from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 132 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hoke 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 Hoke during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hokes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Hoke
The name Hoke has its origins in the Old English language, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain. It is derived from the Old English word "hoc," which means "hook" or "angle." The name was likely used to describe someone who lived near a hooked or angled piece of land or a bend in a river.
In its earliest recorded use, the name appeared as "Hoca" in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of land and property ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. This suggests that the name was already in use among the Anglo-Saxons before the Norman Conquest of 1066.
While the name Hoke does not have any direct references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it does have a long history of use in various parts of England. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name was Hoke de Waddington, who was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1166.
In the 13th century, a prominent figure named Hoke de Hertford was a member of the gentry class in Hertfordshire, England. He was recorded as owning land and property in the area during that time.
During the medieval period, the name Hoke appeared in various forms, such as Hooke, Huke, and Hucke, reflecting the variations in spelling and pronunciation that were common in those times.
One notable individual with the name Hoke was Sir Robert Hoke, a 15th-century English knight who served under King Henry VI during the Wars of the Roses. He fought in several battles, including the Battle of Towton in 1461.
Another significant figure with the name Hoke was William Hoke, an English playwright and poet who lived in the late 16th century. He is best known for his work "The Conqueror's Triumph," a play that celebrated the victory of the English over the Spanish Armada in 1588.
In the 17th century, Hoke Barrington was a prominent merchant and landowner in Gloucestershire, England. He was involved in the wool trade and owned several properties in the area.
During the 18th century, Hoke Whitworth was a renowned English mathematician and inventor. He made significant contributions to the field of engineering and is credited with developing the Whitworth thread, a standardized screw thread that revolutionized the manufacturing industry.
People
Hoke + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hoke 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
Hoke: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hoke?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 173 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hoke 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 1,981,239 US residents.
Is Hoke a common name?
We classify Hoke as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 622 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hoke most popular?
The single biggest year for Hoke was 1910, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hoke is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hoke in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 286 people with the name Hoke, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,451 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 Hoke 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 Hoke?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hoke appears almost entirely male. Of the 287 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Hoke?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hoke is White at 84.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.9%) and Black (4.5%). 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 Hoke most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hoke in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.6% (242 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 Hoke in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hoke a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hoke 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 Hoke still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hoke 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 Hoke 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 Americans are named Hoke?
See how many people have the name Hoke on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.