Poe
A masculine name derived from the French word "pois," meaning "peacock."
Name Census estimates that about 103 living Americans carry the first name Poe. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Poe today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Poe births was 2021 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Poe. 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
103
~ 1 in 3,327,712 Americans
Peak year
2021
17 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,694
Tracked since 2010
Census
Poe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,009 people with the first name Poe, which placed it at #12,361 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
#12,361
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,009 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Poe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Poe is Asian/Pacific Islander at 82.1%. The next largest groups are White (11.3%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Poe 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 Poe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander82.1% · 828
- White11.3% · 114
- Two or more races3.1% · 31
- Black or African American1.8% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Poe
Poe is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 104 total registrations, 81 (77.9%) were male and 23 (22.1%) were female.
Poe as a male name
- Ranked #13,694 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (11 births)
Poe as a female name
- Ranked #14,736 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2019 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Poe on both sides of the split. Of the 1,013 people counted with this name, 672 were male (66.3%) and 341 were female (33.7%).
Popularity
Poe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Poe from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 55 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Poe 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 Poe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Poe
The name Poe is believed to have originated from the Celtic word "peau" or "peu", which means "small" or "little". Its roots can be traced back to ancient Gaelic and Brythonic languages spoken in Ireland, Scotland, and parts of England during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Poe can be found in the ancient Irish text, the "Annals of Ulster", which mentions a figure named "Póe mac Fir Bogaidi" in the year 738 AD. This suggests that the name was in use among the Celtic populations of Ireland at least as early as the 8th century.
The name Poe gained prominence in the medieval period, particularly in Scotland and Northern England. One notable figure from this era was Poe of Fawdon, a 12th-century Scottish knight who fought alongside King David I of Scotland during the Battle of the Standard in 1138.
In the 15th century, the name Poe appeared in the English county of Kent, where a family by the name of Poe resided in the village of Penshurst. This family produced a notable figure named Poe Penrhyn (c. 1430-1490), who served as a member of the Privy Council under King Edward IV.
Perhaps the most famous individual with the first name Poe was the American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), renowned for his works of poetry and short stories, including "The Raven" and "The Fall of the House of Usher". His literary contributions significantly influenced the genres of Gothic fiction and detective fiction.
Other notable individuals with the first name Poe throughout history include:
1. Poe Chiu (1934-2018), a Chinese-American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded the technology company Silicon Graphics.
2. Poe Kilik (born 1954), a Marshallese politician and former President of the Marshall Islands from 2000 to 2008.
3. Poe Dameron (fictional), a prominent character in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, played by actor Oscar Isaac.
4. Poe Dita (1892-1966), an Albanian writer and poet who was a prominent figure in the Rilindja Kombëtare, the Albanian National Renaissance movement.
5. Poe Lluria (1916-1998), a Spanish painter and sculptor known for his surrealist works and association with the avant-garde movement in Barcelona.
People
Poe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Poe 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
Poe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Poe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Poe 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 3,327,712 US residents.
Is Poe a common name?
We classify Poe as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 104 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Poe most popular?
The single biggest year for Poe was 2021, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Poe is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Poe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,009 people with the name Poe, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,361 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 Poe 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 Poe?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Poe on both sides of the split. Of the 1,013 people counted with this name, 672 were male (66.3%) and 341 were female (33.7%). 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 Poe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Poe is Asian/Pacific Islander at 82.1%. The next largest groups are White (11.3%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Poe most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Poe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (828 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 Poe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Poe a male name?
Yes, 77.9% of people registered as Poe 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 Poe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Poe 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 Poe 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 Poe?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.