Stuart
A masculine name of Scottish origin, derived from the Old English stiweard meaning "steward".
Name Census estimates that about 48,132 living Americans carry the first name Stuart. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Stuart today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stuart births was 1960 (2,082 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stuart. 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 Stuart with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Stuart is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 314 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Stuart have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
48K
~ 1 in 7,121 Americans
Peak year
1960
2,082 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,255
Tracked since 1880
Census
Stuart in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 52,142 people with the first name Stuart, which placed it at #869 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
#869
National first-name rank
People counted
52K
52,142 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
17.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Stuart
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stuart is White at 91.0%. The next largest groups are Black (2.6%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Stuart 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 Stuart at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.0% · 47,453
- Black or African American2.6% · 1,351
- Two or more races2.2% · 1,168
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 1,137
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 771
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 262
Gender
Gender distribution for Stuart
Out of the 69,142 babies given the name Stuart since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Stuart as a male name
- Ranked #3,255 in 2024
- 37 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1960 (2,072 births)
Stuart as a female name
- Ranked #16,289 in 1998
- 5 female births in 1998
- Peak: 1918 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stuart appears almost entirely male. Of the 52,140 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Stuart: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Stuart from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 14,114 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Stuart 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 Stuart during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Stuarts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Stuart, while Nevada, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,246 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Stuart
The name Stuart has its origins in the medieval era, tracing back to the Old English word 'stiward', which referred to an administrative position of responsibility over a household or estate. The name derives from the Old English words 'stig' meaning house or hall, and 'weard' meaning keeper or guardian.
In the 11th century, the Norman French form of the word, 'estuard' or 'estuart', emerged, and it eventually evolved into the modern spelling of 'Stuart'. The name became particularly prominent in Scotland, where it was adopted as the surname of the Royal House of Stuart, which ruled Scotland and later England from the late 14th to the early 18th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Stuart can be found in the 12th century, when Walter FitzAlan, a Scottish nobleman, took on the title 'Great Steward of Scotland'. His descendants became known as the Stewarts or Stuarts, and the name gained significant prominence in Scottish history.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Stuart. One of the most famous was Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), who was a member of the House of Stuart and a central figure in the religious and political turmoil of 16th century Europe. Another prominent Stuart was James VI of Scotland (1566-1625), who also became King James I of England and oversaw the translation of the King James Bible.
In the 17th century, Charles I (1600-1649) and Charles II (1630-1685), both members of the Stuart dynasty, played pivotal roles in the English Civil War and the Restoration period. Charles I was eventually executed, while his son Charles II was restored to the throne after a period of exile.
Another historical figure with the name Stuart was James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), also known as the Old Pretender, who claimed the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the son of the deposed King James II.
Beyond the British Isles, the name Stuart has been borne by notable individuals such as J.E.B. Stuart (1833-1864), a Confederate cavalry general during the American Civil War, and Stuart Symington (1901-1988), a United States Senator and the first Secretary of the Air Force.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Stuart
People
Stuart + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stuart 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
Stuart: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stuart?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 48,132 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stuart 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 7,121 US residents.
Is Stuart a common name?
We classify Stuart as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 69,142 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stuart most popular?
The single biggest year for Stuart was 1960, when 2,082 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stuart is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Stuart in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 52,142 people with the name Stuart, or 17.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #869 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 Stuart 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 Stuart?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stuart appears almost entirely male. Of the 52,140 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Stuart?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stuart is White at 91.0%. The next largest groups are Black (2.6%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Stuart most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Stuart in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.0% (47,453 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 Stuart in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Stuart a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Stuart 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 Stuart still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Stuart 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 Stuart 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 the name Stuart?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Stuart, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.