Townes
One of English origin denoting someone from a town or settlement.
Name Census estimates that about 1,330 living Americans carry the first name Townes. It is a predominantly male name (93.7% of registrations). The average person named Townes today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Townes births was 2023 (134 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Townes. 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
- • Townes is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 8 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 257,710 Americans
Peak year
2023
134 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,551
Tracked since 2002
Census
Townes in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 766 people with the first name Townes, which placed it at #15,123 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
#15,123
National first-name rank
People counted
766
766 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Townes
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Townes is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Townes 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 Townes at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 665
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 50
- Two or more races5.2% · 40
- Black or African American0.8% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Townes
Townes leans heavily male at 93.7% of total registrations, but 84 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Townes as a male name
- Ranked #1,551 in 2024
- 113 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (122 births)
Townes as a female name
- Ranked #6,882 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Townes leans strongly male. 719 people counted with this name were male (93.5%), compared with 50 female bearers (6.5%).
Popularity
Townes: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Townes from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 619 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Townes 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 Townes during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Townes' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Texas, California, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Townes, while Virginia, Oregon, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Townes
The name Townes is an English surname-derived given name that originated in the Middle Ages. It stems from the Old English word "tun," meaning an enclosure or a village, and was likely used to identify someone who lived in or near a particular town or village.
In medieval England, surnames were often derived from occupations, locations, or physical characteristics, and Townes was likely used as a locational surname referring to someone who lived in a specific town or village. Over time, some families adopted the surname as a given name for their children.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Townes can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "de la Towne," a Norman-French variation of the English "Townes."
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Townes. One of the most famous was Charles Hard Townes (1915-2015), an American physicist and Nobel laureate who pioneered the development of lasers and the maser, a predecessor to the laser. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the field.
Another notable figure was Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997), an American singer-songwriter and musician known for his poetic and introspective style. He influenced many artists in the Americana and alternative country music genres.
In the literary world, Townes Randolph Van Zandt (1809-1892) was an American writer and lawyer who served as the first president of the Texas State Historical Association and wrote several works on Texas history and culture.
In the realm of sports, Townes Merriken (1916-1983) was an American professional baseball player who played in the Major Leagues for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox in the 1940s.
Finally, Townes Clement Rake (1834-1903) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a judge and as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia in the late 19th century.
People
Townes + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Townes 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
Townes: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Townes?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,330 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Townes 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 257,710 US residents.
Is Townes a common name?
We classify Townes as "Rare". It ranks above 91.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,340 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Townes most popular?
The single biggest year for Townes was 2023, when 134 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Townes is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Townes in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 766 people with the name Townes, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,123 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 Townes 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 Townes?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Townes leans strongly male. 719 people counted with this name were male (93.5%), compared with 50 female bearers (6.5%). 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 Townes?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Townes is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Townes most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Townes in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (665 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 Townes in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Townes a male name?
Yes, 93.7% of people registered as Townes 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 Townes still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Townes 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 Townes 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 have Townes as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.