Holman
An English surname derived from a geographical name meaning "man from the hollow".
Name Census estimates that about 65 living Americans carry the first name Holman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Holman today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Holman births was 1922 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Holman. 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 Holman. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
65
~ 1 in 5,273,144 Americans
Peak year
1922
16 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2021 SSA rank
#11,257
Tracked since 1911
Census
Holman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 354 people with the first name Holman, which placed it at #26,327 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
#26,327
National first-name rank
People counted
354
354 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
48.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Holman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holman is Hispanic at 48.0%. The next largest groups are White (26.6%) and Black (15.3%). 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 Holman 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 Holman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino48.0% · 170
- White26.6% · 94
- Black or African American15.3% · 54
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.5% · 30
- Two or more races1.7% · 6
Popularity
Holman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Holman from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 96 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
Holman 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 Holman 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 Holman
The given name Holman is an English name with origins dating back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "hol" meaning "hollow" and "mann" meaning "man," suggesting a connection to someone who lived in a hollowed-out area or near a valley.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Holman can be found in the Domesday Book, a medieval census commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name is listed as a surname, indicating that it was already in use as a personal identifier during that time period.
In the 13th century, the name Holman appeared in religious texts, such as the writings of the English theologian and philosopher Robert Grosseteste, who mentioned a person with this name in his works.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Holman. One of the earliest recorded was Holman the Civilian, a 13th-century English judge and legal scholar who served during the reign of King Henry III (1216-1272).
Another prominent figure was William Holman (c. 1611-1677), an English playwright and author who wrote several comedies and tragedies during the Restoration period.
In the 19th century, Holman S. Toler (1819-1876) was a prominent American politician and lawyer who served as a judge in Mississippi and was involved in the American Civil War.
Holman Day (1865-1935) was an American author and playwright known for his novels and short stories set in the state of Maine, where he was born.
More recently, Holman Williams (1927-2008) was an American artist and sculptor renowned for his abstract expressionist paintings and sculptures, many of which are featured in prestigious museums and galleries.
These examples illustrate the historical presence and significance of the given name Holman across various fields, including law, literature, politics, and the arts, spanning multiple centuries and geographic regions.
People
Holman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Holman 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
Holman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Holman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 65 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Holman 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 5,273,144 US residents.
Is Holman a common name?
We classify Holman as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 298 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Holman most popular?
The single biggest year for Holman was 1922, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Holman is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Holman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 354 people with the name Holman, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,327 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 Holman 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 Holman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Holman leans strongly male. 345 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 8 female bearers (2.3%). 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 Holman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holman is Hispanic at 48.0%. The next largest groups are White (26.6%) and Black (15.3%). 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 Holman most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Holman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.0% (170 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 Holman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Holman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Holman 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 Holman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Holman 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 Holman 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 Holman as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Holman, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.