Humphrey
From an Old German name, meaning "peaceful home defender".
Name Census estimates that about 509 living Americans carry the first name Humphrey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Humphrey today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Humphrey births was 1924 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Humphrey. 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 Humphrey with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
509
~ 1 in 673,388 Americans
Peak year
1924
22 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,298
Tracked since 1880
Census
Humphrey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,037 people with the first name Humphrey, which placed it at #12,124 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
#12,124
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,037 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
54.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Humphrey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Humphrey is Black at 54.7%. The next largest groups are White (20.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.3%). 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 Humphrey 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 Humphrey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American54.7% · 567
- White20.8% · 216
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.3% · 148
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 62
- Two or more races3.6% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 7
Popularity
Humphrey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Humphrey from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 151 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
Humphrey 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 Humphrey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Humphreys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Humphrey
The name Humphrey has its origins in the Germanic languages, deriving from the Old German words "hûn" meaning "bear" and "frid" meaning "peace". It was initially a compound name signifying someone who had the qualities of a peaceful bear. This name gained prominence in medieval times, particularly in England and France.
In the 11th century, the name Humphrey was recorded in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This early record suggests the name's widespread use in England during the Norman period.
One of the earliest notable figures to bear the name was Humphrey de Bohun, a prominent Anglo-Norman nobleman born around 1145. He was a trusted advisor to King Henry II and accompanied him on military campaigns in France.
The name Humphrey also appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's celebrated work, The Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century. One of the pilgrims in the tales is a character named Humphrey, a wealthy freeman from Oxfordshire.
In the 15th century, Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1402-1460), was a powerful English nobleman and military commander during the Wars of the Roses. He played a crucial role in the conflict between the Houses of Lancaster and York.
Another notable bearer of the name was Humphrey Llwyd (1527-1568), a Welsh antiquarian and cartographer. He is renowned for producing the first printed volume of Welsh prose, as well as creating maps of Wales and England.
In the 17th century, Humphrey Chetham (1580-1653), an English merchant and philanthropist, founded Chetham's Hospital and Chetham's Library in Manchester, which became one of the oldest public libraries in the English-speaking world.
Humphrey Davy (1778-1829), an English chemist and inventor, made significant contributions to the fields of electrolysis and the study of gases. He is credited with isolating several elements, including sodium and potassium, and inventing the Davy lamp for use in coal mines.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Humphrey, a name steeped in Germanic roots and associated with qualities of peace and strength.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Humphrey
People
Humphrey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Humphrey 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
Humphrey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Humphrey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 509 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Humphrey 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 673,388 US residents.
Is Humphrey a common name?
We classify Humphrey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,085 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Humphrey most popular?
The single biggest year for Humphrey was 1924, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Humphrey is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Humphrey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,037 people with the name Humphrey, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,124 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 Humphrey 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 Humphrey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Humphrey leans strongly male. 1,013 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 21 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Humphrey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Humphrey is Black at 54.7%. The next largest groups are White (20.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.3%). 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 Humphrey most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Humphrey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.7% (567 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 Humphrey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Humphrey a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Humphrey 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 Humphrey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Humphrey 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 Humphrey 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 are named Humphrey?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.