Moses
A Hebrew masculine name meaning "drawn from the water".
Name Census estimates that about 29,278 living Americans carry the first name Moses. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Moses today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Moses births was 2016 (669 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Moses. 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 Moses with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
29K
~ 1 in 11,707 Americans
Peak year
2016
669 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#505
Tracked since 1880
Census
Moses in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 28,160 people with the first name Moses, which placed it at #1,304 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
#1,304
National first-name rank
People counted
28K
28,160 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
34.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Moses
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Moses is Hispanic at 34.8%. The next largest groups are Black (33.9%) and White (20.0%). 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 Moses 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 Moses at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino34.8% · 9,800
- Black or African American33.9% · 9,545
- White20.0% · 5,624
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 1,855
- Two or more races3.4% · 970
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 366
Gender
Gender distribution for Moses
Out of the 42,730 babies given the name Moses since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Moses as a male name
- Ranked #505 in 2024
- 603 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (669 births)
Moses as a female name
- Ranked #10,785 in 1987
- 6 female births in 1987
- Peak: 1925 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Moses appears almost entirely male. Of the 28,165 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Moses: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Moses from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,783 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Moses remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Moses 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 Moses during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Moses' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Moses, while West Virginia, South Dakota, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 823 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Moses
The name Moses has its origins in the ancient Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew word "moshe," which means "to draw out" or "to pull out." This name is believed to have been given to Moses because he was drawn out of the waters of the Nile River as a baby.
The name Moses is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. According to the biblical account, Moses was born to Hebrew parents during the time when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. His mother placed him in a basket and set him adrift on the Nile River to save him from the Pharaoh's decree to kill all newborn Hebrew boys. He was later found and adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter, who named him Moses.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Moses dates back to around the 13th century BCE, when the biblical figure Moses is said to have lived. In the biblical narrative, Moses is portrayed as a prophet and leader who led the Israelites out of Egypt and received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Moses. One of the most famous is Moses Maimonides (1135-1204 CE), a renowned Jewish philosopher, theologian, and physician who lived in Spain and Egypt. Another notable figure is Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), a German Jewish philosopher and writer who contributed significantly to the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment movement.
Other historical figures with the name Moses include Moses ben Maimon (Rambam) (1135-1204 CE), a renowned Jewish philosopher, theologian, and astronomer; Moses Hayyim Luzzatto (1707-1747), an Italian Jewish philosopher and poet; and Moses Sofer (Schreiber Sofer) (1762-1839), a prominent Hungarian rabbi and author.
While the name Moses has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture and the biblical narrative, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and religions throughout history, often as a testament to the significant impact and influence of the biblical figure Moses.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Moses
People
Moses + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Moses 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
Moses: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Moses?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29,278 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Moses 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 11,707 US residents.
Is Moses a common name?
We classify Moses as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 42,730 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Moses most popular?
The single biggest year for Moses was 2016, when 669 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Moses is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Moses in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 28,160 people with the name Moses, or 9.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,304 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 Moses 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 Moses?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Moses appears almost entirely male. Of the 28,165 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Moses?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Moses is Hispanic at 34.8%. The next largest groups are Black (33.9%) and White (20.0%). 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 Moses most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Moses in the 2020 Census, accounting for 34.8% (9,800 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 Moses in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Moses a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Moses 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 Moses still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Moses 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 Moses 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 have Moses as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Moses on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.