Hollister
From Old English words meaning "dweller in a hollow valley".
Name Census estimates that about 122 living Americans carry the first name Hollister. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Hollister today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hollister births was 2011 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hollister. 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
122
~ 1 in 2,809,462 Americans
Peak year
2011
14 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,953
Tracked since 1928
Census
Hollister in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 317 people with the first name Hollister, which placed it at #28,376 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
#28,376
National first-name rank
People counted
317
317 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hollister
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hollister is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) 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 Hollister 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 Hollister at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.6% · 246
- Black or African American12.0% · 38
- Two or more races5.0% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Hollister
Hollister leans heavily male at 81.1% of total registrations, but 25 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Hollister as a male name
- Ranked #12,953 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (14 births)
Hollister as a female name
- Ranked #14,059 in 1992
- 5 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1954 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hollister on both sides of the split. Of the 313 people counted with this name, 180 were male (57.5%) and 133 were female (42.5%).
Popularity
Hollister: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hollister from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 63 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
Hollister 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 Hollister 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 Hollister
The name Hollister is of Old English origin, derived from the combination of the words "hol" meaning "hollow" and "ster" meaning "place." It was originally a surname referring to someone who lived near a hollow or depression in the landscape.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Hollister can be found in the Domesday Book, a medieval census commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as a place name and is believed to have been adopted as a surname by families residing in those areas.
In the 12th century, the name Hollister appears in the records of the Exchequer Rolls, which were financial records of the English Crown. This suggests that individuals bearing the name had achieved a level of prominence and wealth during that time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Hollister. One of the earliest was Gervase Hollister, a 13th-century English landowner and knight who fought alongside King Edward I in the Welsh Wars and the Scottish Wars of Independence.
Another prominent figure was John Hollister, a Puritan colonist who arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1642 and later became one of the founders of the town of Wethersfield, Connecticut. He served as a magistrate and representative in the Colonial legislature.
In the 18th century, John Hollister was a British naval officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He played a role in the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778 and later became a prominent merchant and shipowner in London.
During the 19th century, Ovando Hollister was an American lawyer and politician from Ohio. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849.
In the 20th century, one of the most notable individuals named Hollister was Walter Hollister, an American businessman and politician who served as the 29th Governor of Ohio from 1929 to 1931.
While the name Hollister is not as common today as it was in previous centuries, it has a rich history spanning various cultures and historical periods, reflecting the diversity of individuals who have borne this name.
People
Hollister + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hollister 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
Hollister: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hollister?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 122 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hollister 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 2,809,462 US residents.
Is Hollister a common name?
We classify Hollister as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 132 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hollister most popular?
The single biggest year for Hollister was 2011, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hollister is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hollister in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 317 people with the name Hollister, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,376 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 Hollister 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 Hollister?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hollister on both sides of the split. Of the 313 people counted with this name, 180 were male (57.5%) and 133 were female (42.5%). 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 Hollister?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hollister is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) 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 Hollister most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hollister in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.6% (246 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 Hollister in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hollister a male name?
Yes, 81.1% of people registered as Hollister 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 Hollister still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hollister 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 Hollister 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 Hollister?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.