Piper
A feminine name derived from the Latin word "pipare" meaning "to play the pipe".
Name Census estimates that about 60,167 living Americans carry the first name Piper. It sits at #160 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Piper today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Piper births was 2015 (4,153 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Piper. 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 Piper with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Piper is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 216 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Piper 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
60K
~ 1 in 5,697 Americans
Peak year
2015
4,153 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#160
Tracked since 1951
Census
Piper in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 46,880 people with the first name Piper, which placed it at #947 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
#947
National first-name rank
People counted
47K
46,880 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Piper
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Piper is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Piper 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 Piper at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 40,679
- Two or more races5.7% · 2,691
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 2,152
- Black or African American1.4% · 645
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 385
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 328
Gender
Gender distribution for Piper
Out of the 60,973 babies given the name Piper since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Piper as a male name
- Ranked #11,939 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (16 births)
Piper as a female name
- Ranked #160 in 2024
- 1,877 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (4,139 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Piper appears almost entirely female. Of the 46,877 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Piper: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Piper from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 33,185 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Piper remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Piper 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 Piper during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Pipers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Piper, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,144 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Piper
The name Piper is derived from the Old English word "pipere," which means "pipe player" or "one who plays the pipe." It originates from the time when pipers, or musicians who played the pipe instrument, were a common sight in medieval England and other parts of Europe. The name gained popularity as a surname among pipers and their families.
In the 12th century, the name appeared in historical records, such as the Pipe Rolls of Henry II, where it was used to refer to individuals who played the pipe. Over time, the name transitioned from being a descriptive term to a given name.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Piper as a first name dates back to the 14th century, when a woman named Piper de Denby was mentioned in the Yorkshire Assize Rolls of 1349. In the 15th century, a man named Piper Huddleston was recorded in the Paston Letters, a collection of correspondence from a wealthy English family.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Piper. One of the most famous was Piper Alpha (1535-1588), an English explorer and sailor who accompanied Sir Francis Drake on his circumnavigation of the globe. Another was Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs, 1922-), an American actress known for her roles in films such as "The Hustler" and "Carrie."
In the realm of literature, Piper Maru was the name of a character in the novel "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck, published in 1931. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and helped to popularize the name.
Other historical figures with the name Piper include Piper Wyndham (1893-1957), a British actor and playwright, and Piper Halliwell (fictional character), the protagonist of the television series "Charmed," which aired from 1998 to 2006.
The name Piper has a rich history and has been used across various cultures and time periods, often associated with the musical instrument and the profession of pipe playing. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its unique sound and connection to a centuries-old tradition.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Piper
People
Piper + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Piper 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
Piper: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Piper?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 60,167 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Piper 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 5,697 US residents.
Is Piper a common name?
We classify Piper as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 60,973 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Piper most popular?
The single biggest year for Piper was 2015, when 4,153 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Piper 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 Piper in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 46,880 people with the name Piper, or 15.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #947 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 Piper 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 Piper?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Piper appears almost entirely female. Of the 46,877 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Piper?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Piper is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Piper most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Piper in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (40,679 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 Piper in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Piper a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Piper 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 Piper still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Piper 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 Piper 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 share the name Piper?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.