Orrin
A masculine name of English origin meaning "green hill, green valley".
Name Census estimates that about 3,405 living Americans carry the first name Orrin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Orrin today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orrin births was 1915 (98 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orrin. 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 Orrin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.4K
~ 1 in 100,662 Americans
Peak year
1915
98 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,691
Tracked since 1880
Census
Orrin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,033 people with the first name Orrin, which placed it at #5,593 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
#5,593
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
3,033 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Orrin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orrin is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Black (14.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Orrin 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 Orrin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.6% · 2,262
- Black or African American14.4% · 436
- Two or more races4.2% · 126
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 107
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 63
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 39
Popularity
Orrin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orrin 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 709 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Orrin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Orrin 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 Orrin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orrins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. Minnesota, California, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Orrin, while Utah, Oregon, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 46 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Orrin
The name Orrin has its origins in the Gaelic language, which was spoken by the Celtic people of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. It is believed to have derived from the Gaelic word "orran," which means "green" or "fresh." The name's roots can be traced back to the Middle Ages, around the 5th to 15th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Orrin can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. The Annals mention an Orrin who lived in the 7th century and was a prominent figure in the Kingdom of Dál Riata, which spanned parts of modern-day Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In the 12th century, an Orrin ap Iorwerth was a notable Welsh prince and military leader who fought against the Norman invaders. He played a significant role in the struggle for Welsh independence during the Norman conquest of Wales.
During the Scottish Wars of Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, an Orrin of Argyll was a Scottish nobleman and warrior who fought alongside William Wallace and Robert the Bruce against the English forces.
In the 16th century, Orrin Ostrander was a Dutch settler in the New Netherland colony, which later became part of New York. He was among the earliest European settlers in the region and helped establish the Dutch presence in North America.
Another notable figure with the name Orrin was Orrin Porter Rockwell, an American frontiersman, lawman, and bodyguard of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Rockwell lived from 1813 to 1878 and played a significant role in the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement in the United States.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Orrin
People
Orrin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orrin 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
Orrin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orrin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,405 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orrin 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 100,662 US residents.
Is Orrin a common name?
We classify Orrin as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,922 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orrin most popular?
The single biggest year for Orrin was 1915, when 98 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orrin is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Orrin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,033 people with the name Orrin, or 1.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,593 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 Orrin 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 Orrin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orrin appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,041 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Orrin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orrin is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Black (14.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Orrin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Orrin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.6% (2,262 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 Orrin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Orrin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Orrin 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 Orrin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Orrin 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 Orrin 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 Orrin?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.