Thurgood
One who takes the path of God or divine good.
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Thurgood. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Thurgood today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Thurgood births was 1993 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Thurgood. 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 Thurgood. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1993
5 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
1993 SSA rank
#10,017
Tracked since 1993
Popularity
Thurgood: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Thurgood 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 Thurgood during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Thurgood
The name Thurgood is an English given name that originated in the Middle Ages. It is a compound name derived from the Old English words "thurr" meaning "thunder" and "good" meaning "good" or "virtuous." The name was likely bestowed upon individuals with a strong or powerful presence, likening their character to the might of thunder.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Thurgood can be found in the Domesday Book, a record of landowners in England compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The name appears as "Thurgod" in this document, suggesting its use among the Anglo-Saxon population of the time.
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) is arguably the most notable historical figure to bear this name. He was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 to 1991. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Marshall was a prominent civil rights activist and served as the first African American Solicitor General of the United States.
Another noteworthy individual with the name Thurgood was Thurgood Williams (1901-1981), an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan from 1949 to 1961. He was also the first African American to be elected to the Michigan State Senate in 1936.
Thurgood Jenkins (1936-2008) was an American professional baseball player who spent several seasons in the Major Leagues, primarily with the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians in the 1960s and 1970s.
Thurgood Braveboy (born 1974) is a contemporary American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2007, representing Prince George's County.
In literature, the name Thurgood appears in the novel "The Confessions of Nat Turner" by William Styron, published in 1967. The character Thurgood is a young slave who becomes involved in Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831.
While not a widely popular name in modern times, Thurgood has maintained a presence throughout history, particularly within the African American community, as a unique and distinctive given name with roots in the Old English language.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Thurgood
People
Thurgood + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Thurgood 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
Thurgood: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Thurgood?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Thurgood 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Thurgood a common name?
We classify Thurgood as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Thurgood most popular?
The single biggest year for Thurgood was 1993, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Thurgood is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Thurgood a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Thurgood 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.