Paxton
An Old English masculine name derived from "Pacca's town".
Name Census estimates that about 28,911 living Americans carry the first name Paxton. It sits at #288 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (92.9% of registrations). The average person named Paxton today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Paxton births was 2016 (2,084 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Paxton. 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 Paxton with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Paxton is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
29K
~ 1 in 11,855 Americans
Peak year
2016
2,084 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#288
Tracked since 1921
Census
Paxton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,757 people with the first name Paxton, which placed it at #1,568 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
#1,568
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
20,757 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Paxton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Paxton is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.2%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Paxton 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 Paxton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.7% · 16,548
- Two or more races7.2% · 1,485
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 1,271
- Black or African American3.5% · 718
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 574
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 161
Gender
Gender distribution for Paxton
Paxton leans heavily male at 92.9% of total registrations, but 2,075 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Paxton as a male name
- Ranked #288 in 2024
- 1,165 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (1,993 births)
Paxton as a female name
- Ranked #3,201 in 2024
- 50 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (132 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Paxton leans strongly male. 19,141 people counted with this name were male (92.2%), compared with 1,618 female bearers (7.8%).
Popularity
Paxton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Paxton from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 16,101 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Paxton remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Paxton 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 Paxton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Paxtons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Paxton, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 507 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Paxton
The name Paxton is of English origin and is believed to have derived from the Old English words "paec" meaning peacock and "tun" meaning town or enclosure. The name likely originated in the medieval period, referring to a town or village where peacocks were kept or where there was a large population of peacocks.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Paxton can be traced back to the 12th century, where it was used as a surname referring to people from the town of Paxton in Huntingdonshire, England. The name gradually transitioned into being used as a given name in later centuries.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the first name Paxton was Paxton Fleming, an English musician and composer who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Another notable individual was Paxton Boys, the leader of a group of settlers who protested against the British colonial government's policies towards Native Americans in Pennsylvania in the 1760s.
In the 19th century, Paxton Tate was a British architect who designed several notable buildings in London, including the Royal College of Surgeons. Paxton Hibben, born in 1842, was an American Presbyterian minister and author who wrote extensively on religious topics.
Fast forward to the 20th century, Paxton Bloomingdale was an American businessman who served as the chairman of the department store chain Bloomingdale's from 1925 to 1947. Paxton Whitehead, born in 1937, is a British actor known for his roles in various films and television shows.
While the name Paxton has its roots in England, it has gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly in the United States, where it has been used as both a given name and a surname.
People
Paxton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Paxton 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
Paxton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Paxton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 28,911 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Paxton 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 11,855 US residents.
Is Paxton a common name?
We classify Paxton as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 29,274 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Paxton most popular?
The single biggest year for Paxton was 2016, when 2,084 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Paxton is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Paxton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,757 people with the name Paxton, or 6.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,568 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 Paxton 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 Paxton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Paxton leans strongly male. 19,141 people counted with this name were male (92.2%), compared with 1,618 female bearers (7.8%). 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 Paxton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Paxton is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.2%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Paxton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Paxton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.7% (16,548 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 Paxton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Paxton a male name?
Yes, 92.9% of people registered as Paxton 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 Paxton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Paxton 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 Paxton 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 have the name Paxton?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.