Swan
A feminine name referring to the graceful waterfowl with a slender neck.
Name Census estimates that about 99 living Americans carry the first name Swan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 61.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Swan today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Swan births was 1988 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Swan. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Swan. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
99
~ 1 in 3,462,165 Americans
Peak year
1988
15 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2014 SSA rank
#13,805
Tracked since 1889
Census
Swan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 478 people with the first name Swan, which placed it at #21,306 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
#21,306
National first-name rank
People counted
478
478 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
37.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Swan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Swan is White at 37.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (31.4%) and Black (18.2%). 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 Swan 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 Swan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White37.0% · 177
- Asian and Pacific Islander31.4% · 150
- Black or African American18.2% · 87
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 29
- Two or more races4.8% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Swan
Swan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 202 total registrations, 124 (61.4%) were male and 78 (38.6%) were female.
Swan as a male name
- Ranked #13,805 in 2014
- 5 male births in 2014
- Peak: 1925 (11 births)
Swan as a female name
- Ranked #17,845 in 2018
- 5 female births in 2018
- Peak: 1983 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Swan on both sides of the split. Of the 481 people counted with this name, 194 were male (40.3%) and 287 were female (59.7%).
Popularity
Swan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Swan from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 59 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Swan 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 Swan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Swans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Swan
The name Swan has its origins in Old English, derived from the word "swan" which referred to the beautiful white waterfowl. The name first emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD.
In Old English, the word "swan" was spelled as "swan" or "swon", and it was used to describe the graceful and elegant bird. The name likely originated as a descriptive name or nickname for someone who was considered graceful or beautiful, akin to the swan.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Swan can be found in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions a landowner named Swan in the county of Norfolk.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Swan. One of the earliest was Swan Terters, a 13th-century English clergyman who served as Bishop of Carlisle from 1257 to 1268.
In the 16th century, Swan Sefeld was an English Protestant reformer who was burned at the stake in 1558 during the reign of Queen Mary I for his religious beliefs.
The name also appears in literary works, such as the character Swan in the play "The School for Scandal" by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, which premiered in 1777.
In the field of science, Swan Burnett was a prominent American botanist and naturalist who lived from 1847 to 1906. He made significant contributions to the study of plant life in California.
Another notable figure was Swan Moses Burnett, an American lawyer and politician who served as the 18th Governor of California from 1883 to 1887.
While the name Swan has its roots in Old English, it has been used across various cultures and time periods, reflecting the universal appeal of the graceful and beautiful waterfowl it represents.
People
Swan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Swan 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
Swan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Swan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 99 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Swan 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 3,462,165 US residents.
Is Swan a common name?
We classify Swan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 202 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Swan most popular?
The single biggest year for Swan was 1988, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Swan is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Swan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 478 people with the name Swan, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,306 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 Swan 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 Swan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Swan on both sides of the split. Of the 481 people counted with this name, 194 were male (40.3%) and 287 were female (59.7%). 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 Swan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Swan is White at 37.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (31.4%) and Black (18.2%). 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 Swan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Swan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.0% (177 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 Swan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Swan a male name?
Yes, 61.4% of people registered as Swan 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 Swan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Swan 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 Swan 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 common is the name Swan?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Swan at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.