Hooper
One who makes or sells hoops.
Name Census estimates that about 79 living Americans carry the first name Hooper. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hooper today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hooper births was 1914 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hooper. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Hooper with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hooper. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
79
~ 1 in 4,338,663 Americans
Peak year
1914
12 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2023 SSA rank
#9,219
Tracked since 1914
Census
Hooper in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 150 people with the first name Hooper, which placed it at #45,340 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
#45,340
National first-name rank
People counted
150
150 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hooper
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hooper is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (4.0%). 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 Hooper 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 Hooper at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.0% · 126
- Two or more races5.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.0% · 6
- Black or African American3.3% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 1
Popularity
Hooper: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hooper from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 41 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hooper remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hooper 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 Hooper during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hoopers live
Origin
Meaning and history of Hooper
The name Hooper is an English occupational surname derived from the Old English word "hoper," which means a maker or seller of hoops. It originated in medieval England, where hoops were essential components for barrel-making and other crafts involving circular structures.
In the 13th century, the name Hooper began appearing in various historical records, such as the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire, which mentions a "Robertus le Hoper" in 1273. This early reference suggests that the name was already in use as a surname by that time.
During the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the name Hooper gained prominence due to John Hooper, an influential English Protestant reformer and Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester. Born in 1495, Hooper played a significant role in the English Reformation and was eventually martyred for his beliefs in 1555.
Another notable figure bearing the name Hooper was William Hooper, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Born in 1742 in Massachusetts, Hooper was a lawyer and politician who represented North Carolina in the Continental Congress.
In the realm of literature, the name Hooper is associated with Edward Everett Hale's classic short story "The Man Without a Country," published in 1863. The story features a character named Philip Nolan, also known as "Hooper," who is sentenced to spend the rest of his life at sea after renouncing his allegiance to the United States.
The world of sports has also seen its share of notable Hoopers, including Gary Hooper, an English professional footballer who played for several clubs, including Celtic and Norwich City. Born in 1983, Hooper had a successful career in the English Premier League and Scottish Premiership.
Lastly, in the field of science, Grace Hooper, born in 1906, was a pioneering American computer scientist and rear admiral in the United States Navy. She was a co-developer of the COBOL programming language and is widely recognized for her contributions to the development of early computer programming languages.
People
Hooper + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hooper 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
Hooper: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hooper?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 79 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hooper 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 4,338,663 US residents.
Is Hooper a common name?
We classify Hooper as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 116 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hooper most popular?
The single biggest year for Hooper was 1914, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hooper is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hooper in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 150 people with the name Hooper, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #45,340 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 Hooper 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 Hooper?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hooper leans strongly male. 130 people counted with this name were male (92.9%), compared with 10 female bearers (7.1%). 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 Hooper?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hooper is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (4.0%). 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 Hooper most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hooper in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (126 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 Hooper in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hooper a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hooper 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 Hooper still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hooper 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 Hooper 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 Hooper?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Hooper on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.