Robson
The name of English origin meaning "Robert's son".
Name Census estimates that about 122 living Americans carry the first name Robson. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Robson today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Robson births was 2006 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Robson. 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 Robson with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
122
~ 1 in 2,809,462 Americans
Peak year
2006
9 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2020 SSA rank
#11,721
Tracked since 1989
Census
Robson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 806 people with the first name Robson, which placed it at #14,580 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
#14,580
National first-name rank
People counted
806
806 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Robson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Robson is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Black (13.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%). 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 Robson 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 Robson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.2% · 550
- Black or African American13.9% · 112
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.7% · 54
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 52
- Two or more races3.8% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 7
Popularity
Robson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Robson from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 59 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
Robson 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 Robson 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 Robson
Robson is a masculine given name with origins that can be traced back to the Middle Ages in England. It is derived from the Old English words "rob" and "sunu," which together mean "son of Rob" or "son of Robert." The name Robert itself has Germanic roots and means "bright renown" or "bright fame."
During the Middle Ages, the use of surnames became more widespread in England, and patronymic surnames, which identified a person as the son of someone else, were common. Robson emerged as a patronymic surname, indicating that the bearer was the son of a man named Robert or Rob.
While Robson was initially used as a surname, over time, it also gained popularity as a given name, particularly in Northern England and Scotland. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Robson can be found in the Pipe Rolls of Northumberland in 1268, where a man named William Robson is mentioned.
Historically, the name Robson has been associated with various notable figures. One of the earliest examples is Sir Thomas Robson (c. 1320-1384), an English knight who served under King Edward III during the Hundred Years' War. Another notable bearer of the name was George Fenwick Robson (1788-1833), an English poet and essayist known for his contributions to the Romantic literary movement.
In the field of sports, Robson has been a prominent name. Sir Bobby Robson (1933-2009) was an English football player and manager who led the England national team to the semi-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Paul Robson (1882-1976) was an American bass singer and actor who achieved international fame for his performances in musicals and operas, as well as his activism in the civil rights movement.
Other notable individuals with the name Robson include Stuart Robson (1836-1903), an American actor and comedian who gained popularity in the late 19th century, and Thomas George Robson (1808-1876), an English architect who designed several notable buildings in the North East of England.
While the name Robson has its origins in England, it has since spread to other parts of the world, particularly through migration and cultural exchange. However, its historical roots can be traced back to the Middle Ages, where it emerged as a patronymic surname and later evolved into a given name.
People
Robson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Robson 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
Robson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Robson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 122 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Robson 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 2,809,462 US residents.
Is Robson a common name?
We classify Robson as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 124 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Robson most popular?
The single biggest year for Robson was 2006, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Robson is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Robson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 806 people with the name Robson, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,580 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 Robson 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 Robson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Robson appears almost entirely male. Of the 805 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Robson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Robson is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Black (13.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%). 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 Robson most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Robson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.2% (550 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 Robson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Robson a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Robson 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 Robson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Robson 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 Robson 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 Robson?
Find out how many Americans are named Robson on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.