Stockton
From the Old English word "stocc" meaning a tree trunk or wood.
Name Census estimates that about 1,304 living Americans carry the first name Stockton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Stockton today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stockton births was 2020 (62 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stockton. 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.
Key insights
- • Stockton is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 262,848 Americans
Peak year
2020
62 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,085
Tracked since 1917
Popularity
Stockton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Stockton from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 500 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Stockton remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Stockton 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 Stockton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Stocktons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Utah, Idaho, Texas recorded the most babies named Stockton, while Texas, Idaho, Utah recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 245 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Stockton
The name Stockton is an English toponymic surname that has been used as a given name. It originates from the town of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. The name is derived from the Old English words "stocc" meaning "tree trunk" and "tun" meaning "enclosure" or "settlement." This suggests that the name refers to a settlement near a tree trunk or a place where tree trunks were stored.
The earliest recorded use of Stockton as a surname dates back to the 13th century in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273, where it was spelled as "de Stockton." This indicates that the name was initially used to identify people from the town of Stockton-on-Tees.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Stockton. One of the earliest recorded persons with this name was Richard de Stockton, a 13th-century English politician who served as a Member of Parliament for Stockton-on-Tees in 1295. Another early bearer of the name was John de Stockton, a 14th-century English clergyman who served as the Bishop of Lincoln from 1349 to 1361.
In the United States, one of the most famous figures with the given name Stockton was Richard Stockton (1730-1781), a prominent lawyer, judge, and politician from New Jersey. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War.
Another notable American named Stockton was Robert Field Stockton (1795-1866), a naval officer and military leader who played a significant role in the Mexican-American War. He is credited with leading the conquest of California and serving as its first American military governor.
In more recent times, Stockton has been used as a given name by individuals such as Stockton Rush (1951-2022), an American businessman, and the founder and CEO of OceanGate, a company that specialized in deep-sea exploration.
Other notable individuals with the name Stockton include Stockton Axson (1867-1935), an American academic and author who served as the president of Rice University, and Stockton Griffin (1874-1965), an American baseball player who played for the Boston Americans and the New York Highlanders in the early 20th century.
People
Stockton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stockton 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
Stockton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stockton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,304 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stockton 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 262,848 US residents.
Is Stockton a common name?
We classify Stockton as "Rare". It ranks above 91.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,331 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stockton most popular?
The single biggest year for Stockton was 2020, when 62 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stockton is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Stockton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Stockton 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.
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.