Orris
Plant with fragrant roots used in potpourris and perfumes.
Name Census estimates that about 154 living Americans carry the first name Orris. It is a predominantly male name (95.0% of registrations). The average person named Orris today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orris births was 1918 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orris. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Orris is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Orris' were born before 1958.
People living today
154
~ 1 in 2,225,678 Americans
Peak year
1918
51 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
2022 SSA rank
#5,444
Tracked since 1894
Census
Orris in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 293 people with the first name Orris, which placed it at #29,959 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
#29,959
National first-name rank
People counted
293
293 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Orris
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orris is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Orris 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 Orris at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.3% · 203
- Black or African American27.3% · 80
- Two or more races1.7% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Orris
Orris leans heavily male at 95.0% of total registrations, but 49 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Orris as a male name
- Ranked #13,803 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1918 (45 births)
Orris as a female name
- Ranked #5,444 in 1926
- 5 female births in 1926
- Peak: 1917 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orris leans strongly male. 251 people counted with this name were male (86.9%), compared with 38 female bearers (13.1%).
Popularity
Orris: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orris from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 330 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
Orris 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 Orris during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orris' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Minnesota, North Dakota, Indiana recorded the most babies named Orris, while Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Orris
The name Orris is believed to have its origins in the Greek language, derived from the word "oreinós," which means "of the mountains." This suggests that the name was initially associated with people who lived in mountainous regions or had some connection to the mountains.
In ancient times, the name Orris was sometimes used as a variation of the name Orentius, which was a Latin name derived from the Greek word "óros," meaning "mountain." Orentius was a name borne by several early Christian saints and martyrs, indicating that the name had religious significance during that period.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Orris dates back to the 13th century, when an Orris de Montfort was mentioned in historical records from England. This suggests that the name may have been introduced to England during the Norman Conquest and evolved from its original Greek and Latin forms.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have carried the name Orris. One of the most famous was Orris Sanford Greenleaf Olney (1809-1892), an American politician who served as the 24th United States Secretary of State under President Grover Cleveland from 1888 to 1889.
Another notable Orris was Orris David Hart (1879-1971), an American educator and college administrator who served as the president of Purdue University from 1939 to 1946. He was also the founder of the Orris D. Hart Scholarship Fund, which continues to support students at Purdue today.
In the literary world, Orris Sanford Fowler (1809-1887) was an American phrenologist and writer who authored several books on phrenology and human nature in the mid-19th century.
In the realm of sports, Orris D. Browne (1906-1975) was an American football player and coach who played for the University of Michigan and later coached at several colleges, including Western Michigan University and the University of Toledo.
Lastly, Orris Melville Harter (1892-1968) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 34th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio from 1955 to 1957.
While the name Orris may not be as common today as it once was, its rich history and connections to ancient Greek and Latin roots, as well as its associations with notable figures throughout the centuries, make it a unique and interesting name with a fascinating cultural and linguistic heritage.
People
Orris + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orris 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
Orris: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orris?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 154 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orris 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 2,225,678 US residents.
Is Orris a common name?
We classify Orris as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 988 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orris most popular?
The single biggest year for Orris was 1918, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orris is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Orris in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 293 people with the name Orris, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,959 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 Orris 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 Orris?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orris leans strongly male. 251 people counted with this name were male (86.9%), compared with 38 female bearers (13.1%). 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 Orris?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orris is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Orris most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Orris in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.3% (203 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 Orris in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Orris a male name?
Yes, 95.0% of people registered as Orris 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 Orris still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Orris 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 Orris 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 named Orris?
Find out how many Americans are named Orris on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.