Payten
A variant of the English name Peyton, meaning "estate guard" or "warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 3,913 living Americans carry the first name Payten. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Payten today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Payten births was 2009 (343 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Payten. 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 Payten with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Payten is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.9K
~ 1 in 87,594 Americans
Peak year
2009
343 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,150
Tracked since 1992
Census
Payten in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,322 people with the first name Payten, which placed it at #5,231 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
#5,231
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,322 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Payten
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Payten is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Payten 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 Payten at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.1% · 2,729
- Two or more races5.7% · 191
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 178
- Black or African American5.2% · 174
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 29
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 21
Gender
Gender distribution for Payten
Payten leans heavily female at 84.1% of total registrations, but 631 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Payten as a male name
- Ranked #13,687 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (51 births)
Payten as a female name
- Ranked #7,150 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (310 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Payten leans strongly female. 2,768 people counted with this name were female (83.2%), compared with 560 male bearers (16.8%).
Popularity
Payten: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Payten from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,798 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Payten 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 Payten during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Paytens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Payten, while Nebraska, North Dakota, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 52 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Payten
The given name Payten is believed to have originated from the Old English language, with its roots tracing back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, spanning from the 5th to the 11th century AD. The name is derived from the Old English word "pægan," which means "pagan" or "heathen." It is thought to have been used as a descriptive name for those who followed the ancient pagan religions of the region before the widespread adoption of Christianity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Payten can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landholdings and taxation commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086 AD. The name appears as "Pagtinus," which is believed to be an early variant spelling of Payten.
In the 12th century, a notable figure named Payten de Cestria, also known as Payten of Chester, was a prominent scholar and writer in England. He was born around 1092 AD and is known for his works on philosophy and theology, which were influential during the medieval period.
Another historical figure bearing the name Payten was Sir Payten Sutton, a knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War between England and France during the 14th century. He was born in 1320 AD and is recorded as having participated in several battles, including the Battle of Crecy in 1346.
In the realm of literature, one noteworthy individual with the name Payten was the English poet Payten Marshe, who lived during the 16th century. He was born in 1549 AD and is known for his contributions to the Elizabethan era of poetry in England.
Lastly, a prominent figure in the history of exploration was Payten Philips, an English navigator and explorer who sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh on his expeditions to the Americas in the late 16th century. Philips was born in 1561 AD and played a significant role in the early English colonization efforts in what is now North Carolina.
While the name Payten has ancient roots and has been documented throughout various historical periods, it is important to note that these examples are based on historical records and may not necessarily reflect the most comprehensive or accurate representations of individuals bearing this name.
People
Payten + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Payten 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
Payten: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Payten?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,913 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Payten 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 87,594 US residents.
Is Payten a common name?
We classify Payten as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,961 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Payten most popular?
The single biggest year for Payten was 2009, when 343 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Payten is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Payten in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,322 people with the name Payten, or 1.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,231 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 Payten 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 Payten?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Payten leans strongly female. 2,768 people counted with this name were female (83.2%), compared with 560 male bearers (16.8%). 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 Payten?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Payten is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Payten most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Payten in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (2,729 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 Payten in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Payten a female name?
Yes, 84.1% of people registered as Payten in the SSA data are female. 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 Payten still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Payten 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 Payten 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 Payten?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Payten at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.