Hoover
A masculine name of English origin referring to a maker or seller of tubs and vessels.
Name Census estimates that about 235 living Americans carry the first name Hoover. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Hoover today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hoover births was 1928 (256 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hoover. 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 Hoover is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Hoovers were born before 1964.
People living today
235
~ 1 in 1,458,529 Americans
Peak year
1928
256 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
2022 SSA rank
#3,837
Tracked since 1913
Census
Hoover in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 472 people with the first name Hoover, which placed it at #21,491 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
#21,491
National first-name rank
People counted
472
472 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
30.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hoover
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hoover is Black at 30.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.7%) and White (23.1%). 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 Hoover 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 Hoover at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American30.1% · 142
- Hispanic or Latino29.7% · 140
- White23.1% · 109
- Asian and Pacific Islander13.3% · 63
- Two or more races3.4% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Hoover
Out of the 1,127 babies given the name Hoover since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Hoover as a male name
- Ranked #11,379 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1928 (256 births)
Hoover as a female name
- Ranked #3,837 in 1929
- 7 female births in 1929
- Peak: 1929 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hoover leans strongly male. 452 people counted with this name were male (95.8%), compared with 20 female bearers (4.2%).
Popularity
Hoover: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hoover 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 585 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
Hoover 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 Hoover during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hoovers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia recorded the most babies named Hoover, while Michigan, Hawaii, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hoover
The name Hoover is an English surname that originated as a variant of the medieval name Hoverus. The name Hoverus itself is believed to have derived from the Old English word "hof," meaning "house," or from the Middle English word "hoven," meaning "to hover."
Historically, the name Hoover was first recorded in the late 12th century, with references to individuals bearing this surname in various medieval records and texts from England. One of the earliest recorded instances was in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire from the year 1185, which mentioned a person named Willielmus Hovere.
While the name Hoover is not known to have appeared in ancient religious scriptures or texts, it has been associated with several notable figures throughout history. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, who was born in 1874 and served as president from 1929 to 1933. Another notable Hoover was J. Edgar Hoover, the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who held this position from 1924 to 1972.
Other historical figures with the name Hoover include Herbert C. Hoover, an American engineer and businessman who co-founded the Hoover Company, a major manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, in 1908. Hoover Dam, a massive concrete dam on the Colorado River, was named after President Herbert Hoover in recognition of his role in its construction during his presidency.
In the field of sports, Lou Hoover was an American professional baseball player who played in the Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1944 to 1957. He was born in 1925 and is remembered for his time with the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox.
Despite its English origins, the name Hoover has been adopted and used in various cultures and languages around the world, with some variations in spelling and pronunciation. However, its roots can be traced back to the medieval English period, where it emerged as a surname reflecting occupations or locations associated with households or dwellings.
People
Hoover + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hoover 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
Hoover: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hoover?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 235 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hoover 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 1,458,529 US residents.
Is Hoover a common name?
We classify Hoover as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,127 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hoover most popular?
The single biggest year for Hoover was 1928, when 256 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hoover is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hoover in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 472 people with the name Hoover, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,491 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 Hoover 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 Hoover?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hoover leans strongly male. 452 people counted with this name were male (95.8%), compared with 20 female bearers (4.2%). 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 Hoover?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hoover is Black at 30.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.7%) and White (23.1%). 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 Hoover most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Hoover in the 2020 Census, accounting for 30.1% (142 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 Hoover in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hoover a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Hoover 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 Hoover still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hoover 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 Hoover 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 share the name Hoover?
Find out how many people have the name Hoover on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.