Swen
A Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse element "sveinn" meaning "boy" or "servant".
Name Census estimates that about 19 living Americans carry the first name Swen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Swen today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Swen births was 1915 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Swen. 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 Swen. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
19
~ 1 in 18,039,702 Americans
Peak year
1915
9 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
1979 SSA rank
#6,958
Tracked since 1912
Census
Swen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 220 people with the first name Swen, which placed it at #36,203 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
#36,203
National first-name rank
People counted
220
220 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Swen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Swen is White at 76.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.1%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Swen 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 Swen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.8% · 169
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.1% · 20
- Black or African American7.3% · 16
- Two or more races5.0% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Swen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Swen from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 29 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Swen 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 Swen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Swens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Swen
The name Swen has its origins in the Old English language, where it was spelled as "Swegen" or "Swein". It is derived from the Old Norse word "sveinn", which means "boy" or "servant". This name was popular among the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings during the 9th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Swen was Swein Forkbeard, the King of Denmark, Norway, and parts of England from 986 to 1014 CE. He was a prominent Viking ruler known for his military campaigns and conquests. Another notable bearer of this name was Swein Estrithson, the King of Denmark from 1047 to 1076 CE.
The name Swen also appears in several medieval texts and chronicles, including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Heimskringla, a collection of Old Norse sagas written by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.
During the Middle Ages, the name Swen was popular across Scandinavia and parts of England. One famous bearer of this name was Swen Aggeson, a Danish historian and theologian who lived in the 12th century. He is known for his work "A Short History of the Kings of Denmark".
In the 16th century, a Swedish nobleman named Swen Sture the Younger played a significant role in the Swedish War of Liberation against Denmark. He served as the regent of Sweden from 1512 to 1520.
Another notable figure with the name Swen was Swen Hedin, a Swedish explorer, and geographer born in 1865. He is renowned for his extensive explorations of Central Asia and his contributions to the study of the region's geography and culture.
While the name Swen has its roots in Old English and Old Norse, it has been used across various cultures and regions throughout history. It has also been spelled in various ways, such as Svein, Swain, and Sweyn, reflecting the linguistic variations and adaptations over time.
People
Swen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Swen 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
Swen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Swen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Swen 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 18,039,702 US residents.
Is Swen a common name?
We classify Swen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 39.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 56 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Swen most popular?
The single biggest year for Swen was 1915, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Swen is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Swen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 220 people with the name Swen, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,203 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 Swen 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 Swen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Swen leans strongly male. 193 people counted with this name were male (91.5%), compared with 18 female bearers (8.5%). 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 Swen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Swen is White at 76.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.1%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Swen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Swen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.8% (169 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 Swen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Swen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Swen 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 Swen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Swen 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 Swen 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 Americans are named Swen?
See how many people have the name Swen on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.