Thornton
From an English place name meaning "village surrounded by thorns".
Name Census estimates that about 1,252 living Americans carry the first name Thornton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Thornton today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Thornton births was 1921 (75 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Thornton. 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 Thornton with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 273,765 Americans
Peak year
1921
75 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,159
Tracked since 1880
Census
Thornton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,214 people with the first name Thornton, which placed it at #10,805 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
#10,805
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,214 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Thornton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thornton is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (31.4%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Thornton 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 Thornton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.1% · 717
- Black or African American31.4% · 381
- Two or more races5.4% · 65
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 13
Popularity
Thornton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Thornton from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 551 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
Thornton 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 Thornton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Thorntons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Virginia, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Thornton, while Missouri, Maine, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Thornton
Thornton is an English given name derived from the Old English words "thorn" meaning thorn bush or bramble, and "tun" meaning enclosure or settlement. It likely originated as a place name referring to a village or town surrounded by thorny bushes or brambles.
The name can be traced back to the 11th century in England, where variations like Thorneton and Thornton were used as surnames for people living in areas with this name. The earliest recorded use of Thornton as a first name dates back to the 13th century.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir Thornton de Thornton, an English knight who lived in the late 13th century. He is mentioned in several historical records from that time period, including the Pipe Rolls of 1295.
In the 15th century, Thornton Romvile was a prominent English landowner and member of the gentry class. He owned estates in Gloucestershire and is mentioned in various legal documents and records from the reign of King Henry VI.
During the English Renaissance, Thornton Leigh was a notable playwright and author who lived from around 1520 to 1576. He is best known for his plays "The Tragedy of Guistard and Sismond" and "The Honest Whore".
Sir Thornton Watlass was a member of the English Parliament in the 17th century, representing the county of Yorkshire from 1640 to 1653. He was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War.
In the 19th century, Thornton Wilder was an American author and playwright who lived from 1897 to 1975. He is best known for his novels "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" and "Theophilus North", as well as the play "Our Town", for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Thornton, highlighting its long-standing use and significance in various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Thornton
People
Thornton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Thornton as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Thornton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Thornton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,252 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Thornton 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 273,765 US residents.
Is Thornton a common name?
We classify Thornton as "Rare". It ranks above 91.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,122 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Thornton most popular?
The single biggest year for Thornton was 1921, when 75 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Thornton is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Thornton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,214 people with the name Thornton, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,805 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 Thornton 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 Thornton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thornton leans strongly male. 1,170 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 41 female bearers (3.4%). 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 Thornton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thornton is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (31.4%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Thornton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Thornton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (717 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 Thornton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Thornton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Thornton 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 Thornton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Thornton 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 Thornton 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 Thornton?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.