Norlan
A masculine name of Norse origin meaning "from the north lands".
Name Census estimates that about 105 living Americans carry the first name Norlan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Norlan today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Norlan births was 2021 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Norlan. 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.
People living today
105
~ 1 in 3,264,327 Americans
Peak year
2021
10 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,749
Tracked since 1926
Census
Norlan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 491 people with the first name Norlan, which placed it at #20,884 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
#20,884
National first-name rank
People counted
491
491 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
76.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Norlan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Norlan is Hispanic at 76.8%. The next largest groups are White (13.4%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Norlan 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 Norlan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino76.8% · 377
- White13.4% · 66
- Black or African American5.1% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
- Two or more races0.2% · 1
Popularity
Norlan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Norlan from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 43 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Norlan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Norlan 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 Norlan 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 Norlan
The name Norlan is believed to have its origins in Old Norse, the language spoken by the Scandinavian people during the Viking Age. It is thought to be a combination of the Old Norse words "norðr" meaning "north" and "land" meaning "land" or "territory". Together, Norlan can be interpreted as "northland" or "northern territory".
During the Viking era, which lasted from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries, the Norsemen embarked on extensive explorations and conquests across Europe and beyond. It is possible that the name Norlan was initially used to refer to the northern lands inhabited by these seafaring warriors and settlers.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Norlan can be found in the Icelandic sagas, a collection of literary works that document the lives and adventures of the Norse people during the Viking Age. In the Saga of Erik the Red, which recounts the discovery and settlement of Greenland by Erik the Red in the late 10th century, a character named Norlan is mentioned as one of Erik's companions.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Norlan. Norlan Seibert (1901-1986) was an American businessman and politician who served as the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio from 1955 to 1957. Norlan D. Olson (1914-1998) was a renowned American architect known for his work in the modernist style, particularly his design of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon.
Another notable Norlan was Norlan Blake (1923-2012), an Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (now the Australian Football League) during the 1940s and 1950s. He was a member of Essendon's premiership-winning team in 1949.
In the literary world, Norlan Kuntz (1933-2001) was an American writer and educator who authored several works of fiction and poetry. His novel "The Rebel and the Prince" was a notable work that explored themes of identity and personal freedom.
Lastly, Norlan Flores (born 1978) is a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball for teams such as the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals during the early 2000s.
People
Norlan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Norlan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Norlan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Norlan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 105 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Norlan 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 3,264,327 US residents.
Is Norlan a common name?
We classify Norlan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 129 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Norlan most popular?
The single biggest year for Norlan was 2021, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Norlan is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Norlan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 491 people with the name Norlan, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,884 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 Norlan 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 Norlan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Norlan leans strongly male. 480 people counted with this name were male (96.4%), compared with 18 female bearers (3.6%). 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 Norlan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Norlan is Hispanic at 76.8%. The next largest groups are White (13.4%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Norlan most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Norlan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.8% (377 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 Norlan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Norlan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Norlan 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 Norlan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Norlan 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 Norlan 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 share the name Norlan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.