Midian
A masculine name of Hebrew origin referring to the Midianites, an ancient Semitic tribe.
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Midian. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Midian today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Midian births was 2018 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Midian. 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 Midian. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
2018
6 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2018 SSA rank
#11,683
Tracked since 2008
Census
Midian in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 138 people with the first name Midian, which placed it at #47,373 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
#47,373
National first-name rank
People counted
138
138 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
47.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Midian
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Midian is Hispanic at 47.1%. The next largest groups are White (31.2%) and Black (15.2%). 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 Midian 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 Midian at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino47.1% · 65
- White31.2% · 43
- Black or African American15.2% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 7
- Two or more races1.4% · 2
Popularity
Midian: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Midian from the 2000s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, 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
Midian 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 Midian 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 Midian
The name Midian has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient biblical times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "midyan," which means "strife" or "discord." This name is closely tied to the Midianites, an ancient Arabian tribe mentioned in the Old Testament.
The Midianites were a nomadic people who lived in the deserts of northwestern Arabia and parts of modern-day Jordan and Saudi Arabia. They were known for their involvement in trade and commerce, particularly in the spice trade. The name Midian is first mentioned in the Book of Genesis, where it refers to one of the sons of Abraham through his wife Keturah.
In the biblical narrative, Midian and his brothers were sent away by Abraham to the "land of the east," where they established their own settlements and tribes. The Midianites are portrayed as a powerful and influential group, often clashing with the Israelites over land and resources.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Midian is Midian, the son of Abraham and Keturah, who lived around the 18th century BCE. Another notable figure is Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, who was a Midianite priest and is sometimes referred to as Midian or Reuel.
In later historical periods, the name Midian appears sporadically in various texts and records. Midian ben Phineas was a Jewish scholar who lived in the 3rd century CE and is mentioned in the Talmud. Midian Adi was a 16th-century Jewish philosopher and scholar from Safed, Palestine.
Other notable individuals with the name Midian include Midian Ramsey (1747-1820), an American politician and military officer who served in the Revolutionary War, and Midian Osmani (1834-1905), an Albanian writer and educator who played a significant role in the Albanian National Awakening.
While the name Midian has its roots in ancient Hebrew and biblical traditions, it has been used across various cultures and time periods, often carrying connotations of conflict or strife due to its etymological origins.
People
Midian + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Midian as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Midian: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Midian?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Midian 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 Midian a common name?
We classify Midian 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 Midian most popular?
The single biggest year for Midian was 2018, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Midian is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Midian in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 138 people with the name Midian, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #47,373 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 Midian 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 Midian?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Midian on both sides of the split. Of the 137 people counted with this name, 42 were male (30.7%) and 95 were female (69.3%). 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 Midian?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Midian is Hispanic at 47.1%. The next largest groups are White (31.2%) and Black (15.2%). 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 Midian most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Midian in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.1% (65 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 Midian in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Midian a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Midian 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 Midian still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Midian 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 Midian 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 common is the name Midian?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.