Holloway
A name from the Old English referring to a hollow or sunken road.
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Holloway. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Holloway today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Holloway births was 2020 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Holloway. 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 Holloway. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
2020
6 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,825
Tracked since 1914
Census
Holloway in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 112 people with the first name Holloway, which placed it at #51,666 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
#51,666
National first-name rank
People counted
112
112 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Holloway
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holloway is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (38.4%) and Two or More Races (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 Holloway 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 Holloway at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.7% · 59
- Black or African American38.4% · 43
- Two or more races4.5% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Holloway
Holloway is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 26 total registrations, 20 (76.9%) were male and 6 (23.1%) were female.
Holloway as a male name
- Ranked #12,825 in 2021
- 5 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1914 (5 births)
Holloway as a female name
- Ranked #14,088 in 2020
- 6 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2020 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Holloway on both sides of the split. Of the 111 people counted with this name, 49 were male (44.1%) and 62 were female (55.9%).
Popularity
Holloway: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Holloway from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 11 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Holloway 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 Holloway 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 Holloway
The name Holloway is an English place name that has been used as a given name since the late 18th century. The name is derived from the Old English words "hol" meaning "hollow" and "weg" meaning "road or way". It referred to a hollowed-out or sunken road, often found in hilly areas.
The earliest recorded use of the name Holloway dates back to the late 1700s. One of the first known individuals with this given name was Holloway Usill, an English composer and organist who lived from 1790 to 1866. Another early bearer of the name was Holloway Brown, an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Representative from Virginia from 1825 to 1829.
In the 19th century, the name Holloway gained some popularity, particularly in the United States. Holloway Peel, an American lawyer and politician from Mississippi, served as a member of the Confederate States Congress during the American Civil War from 1862 to 1865. Holloway W. Hunt, an American lawyer and judge, served as the Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court from 1889 to 1893.
One of the most notable individuals with the name Holloway was Holloway H. Frost, an American lawyer and politician from West Virginia who served as the 16th Governor of West Virginia from 1909 to 1913. During his tenure, he was instrumental in establishing the state's first workers' compensation law.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Holloway Winston Stevenson, an American educator and civil rights activist who served as the president of Berea College in Kentucky from 1919 to 1949. He played a significant role in the college's commitment to racial integration and equal educational opportunities.
While the name Holloway has had a relatively modest usage throughout history, it has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, including composers, politicians, lawyers, judges, and educators. The name's origin as an English place name reflects its connection to the landscape and geography of the region.
People
Holloway + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Holloway 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
Holloway: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Holloway?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Holloway 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 31,159,485 US residents.
Is Holloway a common name?
We classify Holloway as "Very Rare". It ranks above 30.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Holloway most popular?
The single biggest year for Holloway was 2020, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Holloway is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Holloway in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 112 people with the name Holloway, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,666 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 Holloway 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 Holloway?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Holloway on both sides of the split. Of the 111 people counted with this name, 49 were male (44.1%) and 62 were female (55.9%). 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 Holloway?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holloway is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (38.4%) and Two or More Races (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 Holloway most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Holloway in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.7% (59 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 Holloway in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Holloway a male name?
Yes, 76.9% of people registered as Holloway 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 Holloway still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Holloway 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 Holloway 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 common is the name Holloway?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Holloway, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.