Whitaker
One of Anglo-Saxon origin signifying a maker of white goods.
Name Census estimates that about 784 living Americans carry the first name Whitaker. It is a predominantly male name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Whitaker today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Whitaker births was 2021 (64 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Whitaker. 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
784
~ 1 in 437,187 Americans
Peak year
2021
64 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,253
Tracked since 1949
Census
Whitaker in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 600 people with the first name Whitaker, which placed it at #18,079 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
#18,079
National first-name rank
People counted
600
600 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Whitaker
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Whitaker is White at 88.0%. The next largest groups are Black (5.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Whitaker 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 Whitaker at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.0% · 528
- Black or African American5.2% · 31
- Two or more races4.2% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Whitaker
Whitaker leans heavily male at 98.6% of total registrations, but 11 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Whitaker as a male name
- Ranked #2,253 in 2024
- 64 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (64 births)
Whitaker as a female name
- Ranked #15,179 in 2022
- 6 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2022 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Whitaker leans strongly male. 566 people counted with this name were male (92.6%), compared with 45 female bearers (7.4%).
Popularity
Whitaker: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Whitaker from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 354 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Whitaker remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Whitaker 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 Whitaker during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Whitakers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. North Carolina, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Whitaker, while Washington, Tennessee, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Whitaker
The name Whitaker has its origins in the Old English language and can be traced back to the early Middle Ages. It is derived from the combination of the words "hwit" meaning "white" and "acer" meaning "field" or "cultivated land." This suggests that the name was originally given to someone who lived near or worked on a white field or a field with a lighter soil color.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Whitaker can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. It lists several individuals with the name, indicating its use in England during the 11th century. The spelling variations at the time included Whitacre, Whytaker, and Whittaker.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named John Whitaker was recorded as a member of the Parliament of England. He served as a member of the House of Commons, representing Nottinghamshire in the 1290s.
During the Renaissance period, the name gained prominence with the English historian and antiquarian, Reverend Thomas Dunham Whitaker (1759-1821). He is best known for his work "The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven," which documented the history and architecture of the Craven district in Yorkshire.
In the 19th century, Robert Whitaker (1800-1885) became a prominent figure in the field of publishing. He founded the Whitaker's Almanack, an annual publication that provided a comprehensive guide to various aspects of British life, including government, education, and commerce.
Another notable individual with the name Whitaker was Walter Whitaker (1616-1670), an English Puritan minister and theologian. He was known for his work "A Disputation on Holy Scripture," which defended the authority and sufficiency of the Bible against the claims of the Roman Catholic Church.
Over the centuries, the name Whitaker has been associated with various fields, including literature, academia, and politics. Some other significant figures bearing this name include the American novelist and essayist Charles Harris Whitaker (1918-2008), the British mathematician and computer scientist Randell Whitaker (1909-1992), and the American politician and former Governor of Kansas, John Whitaker (1901-1981).
People
Whitaker + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Whitaker as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Whitaker: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Whitaker?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 784 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Whitaker 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 437,187 US residents.
Is Whitaker a common name?
We classify Whitaker as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 792 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Whitaker most popular?
The single biggest year for Whitaker was 2021, when 64 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Whitaker is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Whitaker in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 600 people with the name Whitaker, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,079 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 Whitaker 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 Whitaker?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Whitaker leans strongly male. 566 people counted with this name were male (92.6%), compared with 45 female bearers (7.4%). 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 Whitaker?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Whitaker is White at 88.0%. The next largest groups are Black (5.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Whitaker most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Whitaker in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.0% (528 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 Whitaker in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Whitaker a male name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Whitaker 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 Whitaker still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Whitaker 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 Whitaker 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 share the name Whitaker?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Whitaker on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.