Whitman
One whose name indicated someone with light-colored hair or skin.
Name Census estimates that about 741 living Americans carry the first name Whitman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Whitman today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Whitman births was 2018 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Whitman. 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
741
~ 1 in 462,556 Americans
Peak year
2018
39 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,174
Tracked since 1909
Popularity
Whitman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Whitman from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 308 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Whitman remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Whitman 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 Whitman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Whitmans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Whitman
The given name Whitman is an English name that originated during the medieval period. It is a combination of the Old English words "hwit" meaning white and "mann" meaning man. The name likely referred to someone with fair hair or a pale complexion.
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled in various ways such as Hwittmann, Whytman, and Whiteman. It was a common surname in England, particularly in the northern counties, before eventually becoming used as a given name as well.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Whitman is found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The name appears as a surname in this historical record.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Whitman. One of the most famous was Walt Whitman, the American poet, essayist, and journalist, who was born in 1819 and died in 1892. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential poets in American literature and is best known for his collection "Leaves of Grass."
Another notable Whitman was Marcus Whitman, an American missionary and physician who led a group of settlers along the Oregon Trail in the 1830s. He was born in 1802 and died in 1847.
In the world of sports, Grover Cleveland Whitman, known as "Whit," was an American baseball player who played in the Major Leagues between 1923 and 1948. He was born in 1900 and died in 1972.
William Whitman, born in 1836 and died in 1900, was an American businessman and industrialist who founded the Whitman Candy Company, which is known for its iconic Whitman's Sampler box of chocolates.
In the field of science, Walter Whitman, born in 1819 and died in 1892, was an American entomologist and botanist who made significant contributions to the study of plants and insects in the United States.
People
Whitman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Whitman 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
Whitman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Whitman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 741 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Whitman 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 462,556 US residents.
Is Whitman a common name?
We classify Whitman as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 868 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Whitman most popular?
The single biggest year for Whitman was 2018, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Whitman is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Whitman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Whitman 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.