Parks
An English name signifying a cultivated outdoor recreation area.
Name Census estimates that about 1,043 living Americans carry the first name Parks. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Parks today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Parks births was 2024 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Parks. 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
1.0K
~ 1 in 328,624 Americans
Peak year
2024
65 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,382
Tracked since 1892
Census
Parks in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 907 people with the first name Parks, which placed it at #13,353 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
#13,353
National first-name rank
People counted
907
907 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Parks
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Parks is White at 90.7%. The next largest groups are Black (3.4%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Parks 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 Parks at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.7% · 823
- Black or African American3.4% · 31
- Two or more races2.9% · 26
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Parks
Out of the 1,401 babies given the name Parks since 1880, 99.1% 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.
Parks as a male name
- Ranked #2,382 in 2024
- 59 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (63 births)
Parks as a female name
- Ranked #14,804 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Parks leans strongly male. 858 people counted with this name were male (94.9%), compared with 46 female bearers (5.1%).
Popularity
Parks: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Parks from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 400 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Parks remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Parks 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 Parks during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Parks' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. North Carolina, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Parks, while Tennessee, Utah, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 55 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Parks
The name Parks is an English name derived from the Old English word "pearroc," which means an enclosed area or field. The name's origins can be traced back to the Middle Ages, specifically the 11th century, when it was used to refer to individuals who lived near or worked in enclosed areas, such as parks or gardens.
In the early days, the name was spelled in various ways, including "Parke," "Parkes," and "Parkes." It was a common name among the English aristocracy and gentry, as many of them owned large estates with parks and gardens.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Parks dates back to the 13th century, when a man named William de Parco was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Northamptonshire in England. The name also appeared in various medieval literature, such as the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, where a character named Parkes is mentioned.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Parks. One of the most famous was Rosa Parks (1913-2005), an American civil rights activist known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Her defiance of segregation laws sparked a significant movement in the civil rights struggle.
Another prominent figure was Gordon Parks (1912-2006), an American photographer, filmmaker, and writer who was best known for his work with Life magazine and his influential photographic essays on poverty and racial inequality.
In the literary world, Mungo Park (1771-1806) was a Scottish explorer who gained fame for his travels in West Africa and for being the first European to explore the Niger River.
In the field of sports, there was Walter Parks (1918-1969), an American baseball player who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was part of the team that won the 1960 World Series.
Lastly, Benjamin Parks (1938-2010) was an American actor and playwright, known for his work in television shows like "The Wire" and "Oz," as well as his contributions to the development of African-American theater.
People
Parks + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Parks as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Parks: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Parks?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,043 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Parks 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 328,624 US residents.
Is Parks a common name?
We classify Parks as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,401 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Parks most popular?
The single biggest year for Parks was 2024, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Parks is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Parks in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 907 people with the name Parks, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,353 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 Parks 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 Parks?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Parks leans strongly male. 858 people counted with this name were male (94.9%), compared with 46 female bearers (5.1%). 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 Parks?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Parks is White at 90.7%. The next largest groups are Black (3.4%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Parks most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Parks in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.7% (823 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 Parks in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Parks a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Parks 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 Parks still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Parks 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 Parks 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 Americans are named Parks?
See how many Americans are named Parks on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.