Slade
A masculine name of English origin meaning "muddy valley".
Name Census estimates that about 5,758 living Americans carry the first name Slade. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Slade today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Slade births was 2007 (246 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Slade. 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 Slade with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.8K
~ 1 in 59,527 Americans
Peak year
2007
246 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,051
Tracked since 1946
Census
Slade in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,540 people with the first name Slade, which placed it at #4,200 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
#4,200
National first-name rank
People counted
4.5K
4,540 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Slade
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Slade is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.0%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Slade 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 Slade at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.6% · 3,886
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 274
- Two or more races4.8% · 220
- Black or African American1.4% · 62
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 59
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 39
Gender
Gender distribution for Slade
Out of the 5,891 babies given the name Slade 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.
Slade as a male name
- Ranked #1,051 in 2024
- 209 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (246 births)
Slade as a female name
- Ranked #13,287 in 2020
- 7 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2020 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Slade leans strongly male. 4,491 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 50 female bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Slade: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Slade from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,765 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Slade remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Slade 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 Slade during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Slades live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. Texas, Louisiana, California recorded the most babies named Slade, while West Virginia, South Carolina, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 95 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Slade
The name Slade has its origins in Old English, derived from the word "slæd," which means "valley" or "dell." It was initially used as a topographic surname, referring to someone who lived near or in a valley or dell. The name can be traced back to the early medieval period, around the 7th to 11th centuries AD, when surnames began to emerge in England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Slade can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landowners and properties commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, such as "Slada" and "Sladene," reflecting its evolution from Old English to Middle English.
During the Middle Ages, the name Slade was primarily associated with the landed gentry and nobility in England. One notable figure was Sir Humphrey Slade, a 14th-century knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War and was awarded lands in Somerset for his service to King Edward III.
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with the rise of the Slade family, a prominent English family known for their contributions to literature and education. One member, John Slade (c. 1516-1561), was an English clergyman and scholar who served as the Headmaster of Merton College, Oxford.
Another significant figure in the history of the name Slade was Sir Felix Slade (1788-1868), an English philanthropist and art collector. He bequeathed a substantial portion of his fortune to establish the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London, which remains a prestigious institution for art education to this day.
In the literary world, the name Slade is associated with the 19th-century English novelist and poet, Douglas William Jerrold (1803-1857). He wrote a popular play titled "The Rent Day," featuring a character named Slade, which showcased the struggles of rural life in England during the Victorian era.
Moving into the 20th century, the name Slade gained recognition in the music industry with the rise of the British rock band Slade, formed in 1966. The band, consisting of Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Don Powell, and Jim Lea, achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1970s with hit songs like "Cum On Feel the Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now."
People
Slade + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Slade 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
Slade: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Slade?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,758 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Slade 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 59,527 US residents.
Is Slade a common name?
We classify Slade as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,891 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Slade most popular?
The single biggest year for Slade was 2007, when 246 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Slade is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Slade in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,540 people with the name Slade, or 1.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,200 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 Slade 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 Slade?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Slade leans strongly male. 4,491 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 50 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Slade?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Slade is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.0%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Slade most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Slade in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.6% (3,886 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 Slade in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Slade a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Slade 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 Slade still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Slade 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 Slade 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 Slade?
You can see how many people share the name Slade on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.