Housten
A variant spelling of the English surname derived from "hous" meaning house.
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Housten. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Housten today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Housten births was 2005 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Housten. 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 Housten. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
2005
6 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,929
Tracked since 2005
Popularity
Housten: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Housten from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6 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
Housten 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 Housten 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 Housten
The name Housten is an anglicized form of the Old English name Hústan, which means "from the settlement by the wood." It is believed to have originated in the 7th or 8th century in the region that is now England. The Old English word "húst" means a wood or forest, and "tún" means a settlement or enclosed area.
Hústan was a common name among the Anglo-Saxons, and it appears in several historical records from that period. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Hústan of Bamburgh, a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon abbot who founded the monastery at Bamburgh in Northumbria.
In the Middle Ages, the name evolved into various spellings, such as Hustan, Hustane, and Housten. It was particularly prevalent in the northern counties of England, such as Yorkshire and Northumberland, where it was often used as a locational surname denoting someone who lived near a wooded settlement.
One notable historical figure with the name Housten was Sir William Housten (c. 1500-1568), a Scottish landowner and military commander who fought in the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the 16th century. He was the laird of Housten in Renfrewshire, Scotland, and his family's surname was derived from the name of their estate.
Another influential bearer of the name was Samuel Housten (1793-1863), an American soldier and politician who served as the President of the Republic of Texas from 1836 to 1838 and later as a U.S. Senator. He was born in Virginia and was of Scottish descent, with his surname being an anglicized form of Housten.
In the 19th century, the name Housten gained popularity in the United States, particularly in the Southern states. One notable American with the name was Housten Woodard (1828-1921), a Confederate soldier and politician from Mississippi who served as a state senator and lieutenant governor.
Other famous individuals with the name Housten include Housten Stevenson (1842-1905), a Union Army officer during the American Civil War, and Housten Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927), a British-born philosopher and author who was influential in the development of German nationalism and anti-Semitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
People
Housten + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Housten 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
Housten: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Housten?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Housten 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 Housten a common name?
We classify Housten 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, 11 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Housten most popular?
The single biggest year for Housten was 2005, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Housten is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Housten in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Housten a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Housten 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 Housten still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Housten 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 Housten 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are named Housten?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.