Milton
A masculine name of English origin meaning "mill town".
Name Census estimates that about 46,147 living Americans carry the first name Milton. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Milton today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Milton births was 1920 (2,603 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Milton. 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 Milton with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Milton is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 615 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Milton have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
46K
~ 1 in 7,427 Americans
Peak year
1920
2,603 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,428
Tracked since 1880
Census
Milton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 51,885 people with the first name Milton, which placed it at #870 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
#870
National first-name rank
People counted
52K
51,885 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
17.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Milton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Milton is White at 41.0%. The next largest groups are Black (27.9%) and Hispanic (26.4%). 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 Milton 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 Milton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.0% · 21,268
- Black or African American27.9% · 14,497
- Hispanic or Latino26.4% · 13,686
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 1,112
- Two or more races1.8% · 935
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 387
Gender
Gender distribution for Milton
Out of the 118,422 babies given the name Milton since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Milton as a male name
- Ranked #1,428 in 2024
- 128 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (2,592 births)
Milton as a female name
- Ranked #10,455 in 1989
- 7 female births in 1989
- Peak: 1918 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Milton appears almost entirely male. Of the 51,890 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Milton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Milton 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 24,357 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
Milton 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 Milton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Miltons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Milton, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,119 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Milton
The name Milton is an English given name derived from the Old English words "mill" and "tun", meaning "mill town" or "mill village". It originated as a place name and was later adopted as a surname, and eventually also as a given name.
The earliest recorded use of the name Milton as a given name dates back to the 12th century. One notable bearer of the name was the English poet John Milton, who lived from 1608 to 1674 and is best known for his epic poem "Paradise Lost".
Another famous Milton was the American statesman and diplomat Milton S. Eisenhower, who was born in 1899 and served as the President of Pennsylvania State University and the President of Johns Hopkins University.
In the world of literature, Milton Avery was an American modern painter who lived from 1885 to 1965 and was known for his colorful and poetic depictions of scenes from daily life.
Milton Friedman, born in 1912 and died in 2006, was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and the complexity of stabilization policy.
Milton Berle, who lived from 1908 to 2002, was an American comedian and actor, known as "Mr. Television" and "Uncle Miltie" for his contributions to the early days of television in the United States.
While the name Milton has its roots in Old English, it has been used across various cultures and time periods, with notable bearers contributing to fields such as literature, politics, art, and economics.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Milton
People
Milton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Milton 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
Milton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Milton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 46,147 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Milton 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 7,427 US residents.
Is Milton a common name?
We classify Milton as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 118,422 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Milton most popular?
The single biggest year for Milton was 1920, when 2,603 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Milton is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Milton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 51,885 people with the name Milton, or 17.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #870 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 Milton 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 Milton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Milton appears almost entirely male. Of the 51,890 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Milton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Milton is White at 41.0%. The next largest groups are Black (27.9%) and Hispanic (26.4%). 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 Milton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Milton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.0% (21,268 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 Milton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Milton a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Milton 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 Milton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Milton 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 Milton 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 Americans are named Milton?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Milton at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.