Scott
An anglicized form of the Scottish surname meaning "Scotsman".
Name Census estimates that about 680,373 living Americans carry the first name Scott. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Scott today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Scott births was 1971 (31,035 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Scott. 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 Scott with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Scott is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,608 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Scott have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
680K
~ 1 in 504 Americans
Peak year
1971
31,035 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2024 SSA rank
#565
Tracked since 1880
Census
Scott in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 655,955 people with the first name Scott, which placed it at #59 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
#59
National first-name rank
People counted
656K
655,955 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
217.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Scott
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Scott is White at 93.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.2%) and Hispanic (1.9%). 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 Scott 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 Scott at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.2% · 611,290
- Two or more races2.2% · 14,408
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 12,536
- Black or African American1.2% · 8,120
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 7,145
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2,456
Gender
Gender distribution for Scott
Out of the 777,059 babies given the name Scott since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Scott as a male name
- Ranked #565 in 2024
- 517 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (30,902 births)
Scott as a female name
- Ranked #14,990 in 2001
- 6 female births in 2001
- Peak: 1971 (133 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Scott appears almost entirely male. Of the 655,952 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Scott: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Scott from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 267,565 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
Scott 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 Scott during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Scotts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Scott, while Alaska, Wyoming, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15,124 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Scott
The name Scott has its origins in the late Latin word "Scoticus" which means "from Scotia". Scotia was the Latin term used to refer to parts of modern-day Scotland and Ireland. The name emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 11th or 12th centuries.
Scott was originally an ethnic name given to people from Scotland or of Scottish descent. As surnames became more common in medieval Europe, Scott evolved into a surname as well as a given name. The earliest recorded instances of the name Scott as a first name appear in medieval Scottish records and charters.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was William Scott, a Scottish nobleman who lived in the late 12th century. He was a witness to several royal charters issued by King William the Lion of Scotland. Another early bearer was Reginald Scott, a Scottish philosopher and scholar who lived in the 13th century.
In the 14th century, Sir Michael Scott (c. 1175 - c. 1232) was a renowned Scottish scholar, mathematician, and alleged wizard. He was a figure of legend and folklore, appearing in various medieval literature and stories. Another notable Scott from this era was John Scott (c. 1301 - 1355), a Scottish soldier who fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
During the Renaissance, William Scott (1515 - 1594) was a Scottish poet and author who served as a courtier to King James VI of Scotland. In the 17th century, James Scott (1649 - 1685), the Duke of Monmouth, was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England and a prominent military leader.
Moving into the 18th century, Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) was a prolific Scottish novelist, poet, and playwright, celebrated for his historical novels and contributions to the Romantic movement. Another famous bearer was Robert Falcon Scott (1868 - 1912), a British naval officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Scott
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Scott Baio
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Scott Bairstow
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Scott Bakula
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Scott Brosius
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Scott Derrickson
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Scott Dunlap
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Scott Elliott
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Scott Erickson
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Scott Foley
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Scott Garrett
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Scott Glenn
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Scott Gomez
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Scott Hatteberg
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Scott Hicks
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Scott Mcgehee
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Scott Pembroke
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Scott Rolen
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Scott Ryan
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Scott Spiegel
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Scott Spiezio
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Scott Steiner
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Scott Stevens
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Scott Thornton
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Scott Williamson
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Scott Wimmer
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Scott Wolf
People
Scott + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Scott 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
Scott: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Scott?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 680,373 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Scott 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 504 US residents.
Is Scott a common name?
We classify Scott as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 777,059 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Scott most popular?
The single biggest year for Scott was 1971, when 31,035 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Scott is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Scott in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 655,955 people with the name Scott, or 217.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #59 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 Scott 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 Scott?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Scott appears almost entirely male. Of the 655,952 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 Scott?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Scott is White at 93.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.2%) and Hispanic (1.9%). 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 Scott most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Scott in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.2% (611,290 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 Scott in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Scott a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Scott 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 Scott still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Scott 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 Scott 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 have Scott as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Scott on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.