Orestes
A Greek mythology name meaning "mountain man" or "son of the mountains".
Name Census estimates that about 309 living Americans carry the first name Orestes. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Orestes today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orestes births was 1986 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orestes. 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 Orestes with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
309
~ 1 in 1,109,237 Americans
Peak year
1986
14 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2019 SSA rank
#13,598
Tracked since 1918
Census
Orestes in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,617 people with the first name Orestes, which placed it at #8,828 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
#8,828
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,617 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
90.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Orestes
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orestes is Hispanic at 90.2%. The next largest groups are White (5.5%) and Black (2.1%). 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 Orestes 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 Orestes at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino90.2% · 1,458
- White5.5% · 89
- Black or African American2.1% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 23
- Two or more races0.7% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Orestes: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orestes from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 76 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Orestes remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Orestes 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 Orestes during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orestes' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Orestes
The name Orestes originates from Ancient Greek language and culture, dating back to around the 8th century BC. It is derived from the Greek word "oros" meaning "mountain" and the suffix "-estes" which denotes "one who belongs to" or "one who has the quality of". Thus, the name Orestes can be interpreted as "the mountaineer" or "one who belongs to the mountains".
Orestes is a prominent figure in Greek mythology, appearing in various ancient texts and plays. He is the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and plays a central role in the Oresteia trilogy by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. In this tragic story, Orestes avenges the murder of his father by killing his mother Clytemnestra, and is later pursued by the Furies for committing matricide.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Orestes is found in the Iliad, an ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer, which is believed to have been composed around the 8th century BC. In this work, Orestes is mentioned as the son of Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Orestes. Orestes of Tralles (4th century BC) was a Greek mathematician and astronomer who contributed to the development of ancient astronomy. Orestes of Sardis (3rd century BC) was a Greek grammarian and scholar who worked on the preservation and interpretation of ancient texts.
In the 16th century, Orestes Brownson (1803-1876) was an American writer, philosopher, and theologian who played a significant role in the intellectual and religious debates of his time. Orestes Augustus Brownson (1805-1882), his cousin, was a prominent lawyer and politician who served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Vermont.
Orestes Fernández (1897-1976) was a Cuban writer, journalist, and diplomat who received the National Prize for Literature in 1958. Orestes Quintana (1909-1991) was a Venezuelan poet and writer, known for his contributions to the literary movement of post-modernism in Latin American literature.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Orestes, a name deeply rooted in Greek mythology and culture, reflecting a connection to the mountains and a sense of belonging.
People
Orestes + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orestes as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Orestes: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orestes?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 309 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orestes 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 1,109,237 US residents.
Is Orestes a common name?
We classify Orestes as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 343 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orestes most popular?
The single biggest year for Orestes was 1986, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orestes is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Orestes in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,617 people with the name Orestes, or 0.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,828 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 Orestes 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 Orestes?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orestes appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,612 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 Orestes?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orestes is Hispanic at 90.2%. The next largest groups are White (5.5%) and Black (2.1%). 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 Orestes most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Orestes in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.2% (1,458 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 Orestes in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Orestes a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Orestes 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 Orestes still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Orestes 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 Orestes 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 called Orestes?
Find out how many people share the name Orestes on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.