Torsten
A masculine Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse words "Thor" and "sten" meaning "Thor's stone".
Name Census estimates that about 678 living Americans carry the first name Torsten. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Torsten today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Torsten births was 2009 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Torsten. 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.
People living today
678
~ 1 in 505,537 Americans
Peak year
2009
33 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,408
Tracked since 1962
Popularity
Torsten: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Torsten from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 255 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Torsten remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Torsten 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 Torsten during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Torstens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Washington, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Torsten, while Minnesota, Washington, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Torsten
The name Torsten is a Scandinavian name of Old Norse origin. It is derived from the Old Norse elements "þorr" meaning "thunder" and "steinn" meaning "stone". The name can be roughly translated to mean "Thor's stone" or "stone of thunder".
The name is closely tied to the ancient Norse mythology and the god Thor, who was associated with thunder, lightning, storms, and strength. The inclusion of "steinn" in the name suggests a connection to the solid and enduring nature of stone or rock.
The earliest recorded use of the name Torsten can be traced back to the Viking Age, around the 8th to 11th centuries. During this period, the Norse people were active in Scandinavia, parts of Europe, and even parts of North America.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Torsten was Torsten Galen, a Swedish military officer who served as a colonel in the Swedish army during the 17th century. He was born in 1628 and played a significant role in several military campaigns during the later stages of the Thirty Years' War.
Another prominent individual with the name Torsten was Torsten Kåre Nilsson, a Swedish writer and poet born in 1898. He was known for his poetry collections and novels, which often explored themes of nature, love, and the human condition. Nilsson was awarded the prestigious Bellman Prize in 1934 for his literary contributions.
In the field of science, Torsten Wiesel, a Swedish neurophysiologist, made significant contributions to the understanding of the visual system. He was born in 1924 and shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with David Hubel for their groundbreaking research on information processing in the visual cortex.
Torsten Lindberg, born in 1917, was a Swedish athlete who excelled in the sport of wrestling. He competed in the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in the featherweight category in 1952.
Torsten Viljor, a Norwegian-American actor and director, was born in 1912. He had a successful career in Hollywood, appearing in numerous films and television shows throughout the mid-20th century. Some of his notable roles were in the films "Quo Vadis" (1951) and "The Ten Commandments" (1956).
People
Torsten + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Torsten 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
Torsten: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Torsten?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 678 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Torsten 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 505,537 US residents.
Is Torsten a common name?
We classify Torsten as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 691 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Torsten most popular?
The single biggest year for Torsten was 2009, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Torsten is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Torsten a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Torsten 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.