Scot
Person from Scotland.
Name Census estimates that about 11,948 living Americans carry the first name Scot. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Scot today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Scot births was 1970 (633 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Scot. 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 Scot with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 28,687 Americans
Peak year
1970
633 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,284
Tracked since 1940
Census
Scot in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,997 people with the first name Scot, which placed it at #2,193 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
#2,193
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,997 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Scot
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Scot is White at 93.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.4%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Scot 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 Scot at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.1% · 11,171
- Two or more races2.4% · 288
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 213
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 140
- Black or African American1.1% · 133
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 52
Gender
Gender distribution for Scot
Out of the 13,726 babies given the name Scot since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Scot as a male name
- Ranked #13,852 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (633 births)
Scot as a female name
- Ranked #7,284 in 1969
- 6 female births in 1969
- Peak: 1969 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Scot appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,000 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Scot: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Scot from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 5,250 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Scot 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 Scot during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Scots live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. California, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Scot, while Alabama, District of Columbia, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 247 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Scot
The name Scot originates from the Old English word "Scot," which was used to refer to a person from Scotland or someone of Scottish descent. The name has its roots in the Latin word "Scoti," which was used by the Romans to describe the Gaelic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland and later the inhabitants of Scotland.
In the Middle Ages, the term "Scot" was often used interchangeably with the term "Irishman," reflecting the close cultural ties between the two regions. However, over time, the name Scot became more closely associated with Scotland and its people.
The earliest recorded use of the name Scot dates back to the 7th century, when it appeared in the writings of the Venerable Bede, an English monk and scholar. Bede's work, "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," mentions the Scots as people inhabiting the northern part of the island of Britain.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Scot was Scot of Caledonia, also known as Scot the Wanderer, who lived in the 6th century. He was a Christian missionary and is considered a patron saint of Ulster in Ireland.
In the 9th century, a Scot named Duan Albannach, also known as Duan Scotus, was a renowned Irish monk and scholar who taught at the monastic schools of Liège and Malmesbury. He made significant contributions to the fields of theology and philosophy.
During the 12th century, a Scottish historian and chronicler named Scot of Ancyra, also known as Scot of St. Andrews, wrote an important work titled "Chronica Gentis Scotorum" (Chronicle of the Scottish People), which provided valuable insights into the early history of Scotland.
In the 16th century, Scot of Cupar, also known as Scot of Scotland or Scot the Mathematician, was a Scottish mathematician and philosopher who made notable contributions to the field of mathematics, particularly in the study of algebra and trigonometry.
Another notable individual with the name Scot was Michael Scot, a Scottish scholar and philosopher who lived in the 13th century. He was known for his translations of works by Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers, as well as his contributions to the fields of astrology and alchemy.
People
Scot + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Scot as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Scot: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Scot?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,948 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Scot 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 28,687 US residents.
Is Scot a common name?
We classify Scot as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,726 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Scot most popular?
The single biggest year for Scot was 1970, when 633 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Scot is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Scot in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,997 people with the name Scot, or 3.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,193 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 Scot 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 Scot?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Scot appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,000 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 Scot?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Scot is White at 93.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.4%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Scot most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Scot in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.1% (11,171 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 Scot in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Scot a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Scot 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 Scot still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Scot 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 Scot 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 called Scot?
You can see how many people have the name Scot on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.