Payson
English masculine name meaning "son of the parish priest".
Name Census estimates that about 2,483 living Americans carry the first name Payson. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 55.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Payson today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Payson births was 2012 (171 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Payson. 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
- • Payson sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Payson 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
2.5K
~ 1 in 138,040 Americans
Peak year
2012
171 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,649
Tracked since 1917
Gender
Gender distribution for Payson
Payson is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,528 total registrations, 1,406 (55.6%) were male and 1,122 (44.4%) were female.
Payson as a male name
- Ranked #2,649 in 2024
- 50 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (78 births)
Payson as a female name
- Ranked #3,934 in 2024
- 38 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (116 births)
Popularity
Payson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Payson from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,367 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Payson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Payson 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 Payson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Paysons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Arizona, Utah, Texas recorded the most babies named Payson, while Virginia, Indiana, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 29 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Payson
The name Payson is an English surname that originated as a masculine given name. It is derived from the Old English word "paien" or "pahien," meaning "pagan" or "heathen." The name was likely initially used to refer to individuals who were not Christian or those who had recently converted to Christianity.
In the Middle Ages, the name Payson gained popularity in England and was often given to children born into Christian families as a symbol of their faith and rejection of pagan beliefs. The earliest recorded use of the name Payson dates back to the late 12th century in England.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Payson was Sir Payson de Beauchamp, a 13th-century English knight who served under King Edward I. In the 14th century, a Payson de Littlebury was mentioned in historical records as a landowner in Essex, England.
During the Reformation period in the 16th century, the name Payson became associated with Protestantism and was adopted by Puritan families in England. One notable bearer of the name was Payson Williston, an English Puritan minister who emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s.
In the 17th century, the name Payson was brought to America by Puritan settlers from England. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Edward Payson (1783-1827), an influential American Congregationalist minister and preacher known for his powerful sermons and eloquent writing.
Other notable individuals named Payson throughout history include Payson Usher (1786-1866), an American lawyer and politician who served as the 27th Governor of New Hampshire, and Payson Terhune (1857-1942), an American novelist and author of numerous books and short stories, particularly those featuring collies and other dogs.
People
Payson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Payson 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
Payson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Payson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,483 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Payson 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 138,040 US residents.
Is Payson a common name?
We classify Payson as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,528 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Payson most popular?
The single biggest year for Payson was 2012, when 171 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Payson is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Payson a male name?
Yes, 55.6% of people registered as Payson 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.
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.