NameCensus.
Very Common

Robert

From the old German "bright renown", a masculine given name.

Name Census estimates that about 2,799,566 living Americans carry the first name Robert. It sits at #90 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Robert today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Robert births was 1947 (91,891 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to William (2,335,115).

This page is the full Name Census profile for Robert. 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 Robert with official rankings and popularity over time.

Key insights

  • • Although Robert is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 20,116 girls registered with the name since 1880.
  • • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Robert have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
  • • Over 2.8 million Americans are estimated to carry the first name Robert, putting it among the highest-count names in the entire dataset.

People living today

2.8M

~ 1 in 122 Americans

Peak year

1947

91,891 babies that year

Average age

60

years old

2024 SSA rank

#90

Tracked since 1880

Census

Robert in the 2020 Census

The 2020 Census recorded 2,759,332 people with the first name Robert, which placed it at #5 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

National first-name rank

People counted

2.8M

2,759,332 in the published race/origin table

Per 100,000

913.6

People with this name in 2020

Largest reported group

White

82.7% of people with this name

Demographics

Ancestry and ethnicity for Robert

In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Robert is White at 82.7%. The next largest groups are Black (7.2%) and Hispanic (6.3%). 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 Robert 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 Robert at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.

  • White82.7% · 2,281,552
  • Black or African American7.2% · 197,710
  • Hispanic or Latino6.3% · 173,163
  • Two or more races2.4% · 65,000
  • Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 27,114
  • American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 14,793

Gender

Gender distribution for Robert

Out of the 4,866,007 babies given the name Robert since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.

100% male
Male4,845,891 (99.6%)Female20,116 (0.4%)

Robert as a male name

  • Ranked #90 in 2024
  • 3,785 male births in 2024
  • Peak: 1947 (91,654 births)

Robert as a female name

  • Ranked #14,818 in 2023
  • 6 female births in 2023
  • Peak: 1929 (441 births)

2020 Census snapshot

In the 2020 Census sex table, Robert appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,759,339 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.

100% male
Male2,756,604 (99.9%)Female2,735 (0.1%)

Popularity

Robert: popularity over time

The SSA tracks Robert from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 832,591 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.

Babies born per year

MaleFemale
023K46K69K92K18801900192019401960198020002020

Decades

Robert 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 Robert during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.

DecadeMaleFemaleTotal
1880s24,07411924,193
1890s26,14717226,319
1900s35,84919736,046
1910s239,1851,052240,237
1920s576,3753,240579,615
1930s590,7992,736593,535
1940s758,1152,114760,229
1950s830,3912,200832,591
1960s650,7692,681653,450
1970s397,2492,628399,877
1980s321,6722,206323,878
1990s205,454537205,991
2000s106,658164106,822
2010s62,6375862,695
2020s20,5171220,529

Geography

Where Roberts live

The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Robert, while Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 93,625 registrations each.

New York
442,411
Pennsylvania
354,376
California
354,323
Ohio
280,254
Illinois
278,666
Texas
225,621
Michigan
216,822
Massachusetts
173,119
New Jersey
172,751
Indiana
129,388

Origin

Meaning and history of Robert

The given name Robert has its origins in the Germanic language family, derived from the ancient Germanic words "hrod" meaning "fame" and "berht" meaning "bright." It is believed to have emerged as a personal name during the early Middle Ages, around the 6th or 7th century AD.

Robert is a variant of the older Germanic name Robrecht or Ruprecht, which was popular among the Frankish people of what is now modern-day France and Germany. The name's popularity spread throughout Europe during the medieval period, aided by its association with various historical figures and saints.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Robert appears in the 8th century, when it was borne by Robert the Strong, a Frankish nobleman and military leader who played a crucial role in defending Paris against Viking raids. Another notable early figure was Robert Guiscard, a Norman adventurer and the Duke of Apulia and Calabria in the 11th century.

The name Robert gained further prominence with the rise of the Normans in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066. Robert, Duke of Normandy, the eldest son of William the Conqueror, was a significant figure in this period. Subsequently, many English kings and nobles bore the name, including Robert Curthose (c. 1054-1134), the eldest son of William the Conqueror, and Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), the famous Scottish king who secured Scotland's independence.

In the realm of literature, Robert Browning (1812-1889) was a renowned English poet and playwright, known for his dramatic monologues and pioneering works in the field of Victorian poetry. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), the Scottish novelist, essayist, and travel writer, is celebrated for his literary classics such as "Treasure Island" and "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde."

The name Robert has also been borne by several notable figures in the arts and sciences. Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was an English scientist and architect who made significant contributions to the fields of physics, biology, and architecture. Robert Fulton (1765-1815) was an American engineer and inventor, best known for developing the first commercially successful steamboat.

Throughout history, the name Robert has remained a popular choice across various cultures and regions, with its roots firmly established in the Germanic linguistic tradition and its association with numerous influential figures spanning different eras and fields.

Notable bearers

Famous people named Robert

People

Robert + last name combinations

How many people share a full name with Robert as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.

Related

Other names starting with R

Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.

FAQ

Robert: questions and answers

How many people in the U.S. are named Robert?

Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,799,566 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Robert 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 122 US residents.

Is Robert a common name?

We classify Robert as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,866,007 babies have been registered with this name.

When was Robert most popular?

The single biggest year for Robert was 1947, when 91,891 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Robert is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.

How common was Robert in the 2020 Census?

The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,759,332 people with the name Robert, or 913.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5 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 Robert 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 Robert?

In the 2020 Census sex table, Robert appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,759,339 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Robert?

In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Robert is White at 82.7%. The next largest groups are Black (7.2%) and Hispanic (6.3%). 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 Robert most often in the Census?

White is the largest reported group for people named Robert in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.7% (2,281,552 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 Robert in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.

Is Robert a male name?

Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Robert 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 Robert still being used today?

Yes. The SSA still recorded Robert 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 Robert 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 are named Robert?

For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.

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There are 2.8M people

with the first name

Robert

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