Yarrow
Small, feathery plant with clustered white or pink flowers.
Name Census estimates that about 134 living Americans carry the first name Yarrow. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 61.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Yarrow today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yarrow births was 2021 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yarrow. 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
134
~ 1 in 2,557,868 Americans
Peak year
2021
16 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,922
Tracked since 1972
Census
Yarrow in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 196 people with the first name Yarrow, which placed it at #38,869 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
#38,869
National first-name rank
People counted
196
196 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yarrow
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yarrow is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.7%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Yarrow 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 Yarrow at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.6% · 160
- Two or more races7.7% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.6% · 5
- Black or African American2.0% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Yarrow
Yarrow is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 140 total registrations, 54 (38.6%) were male and 86 (61.4%) were female.
Yarrow as a male name
- Ranked #8,922 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (10 births)
Yarrow as a female name
- Ranked #13,522 in 2022
- 7 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1976 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yarrow on both sides of the split. Of the 200 people counted with this name, 59 were male (29.5%) and 141 were female (70.5%).
Popularity
Yarrow: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yarrow from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 59 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
Yarrow 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 Yarrow during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yarrow
The given name Yarrow has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "gearwe," which means "milfoil" or "yarrow," referring to the herbaceous flowering plant. The name first appeared in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD.
Yarrow was initially a surname, as it was common for people to be named after plants, occupations, or physical characteristics during that era. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is listed as "Gerwe" or "Geruwi."
In medieval times, the yarrow plant was believed to have medicinal properties and was used in various herbal remedies. It was also associated with love divination rituals, which may have contributed to the name's popularity as a given name, particularly for girls.
The name Yarrow gained literary significance in the 19th century when it was used by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth in his poem "The Solitary Reaper," published in 1807. This poetic reference helped to popularize the name further.
Notable historical figures with the given name Yarrow include:
1. Yarrow Mamout (c. 1736-1823), an African Muslim slave who gained his freedom and became a prominent member of the Georgetown community in Washington, D.C.
2. Yarrow Pyle (1856-1942), an American artist known for her still life paintings and landscapes.
3. Yarrow Salley (1912-1991), an American writer and director who worked in Hollywood during the Golden Age of cinema.
4. Yarrow Achillee (1932-2009), a Canadian artist and sculptor known for her abstract metal sculptures.
5. Yarrow Delicatessen (1951-present), an American singer-songwriter and musician who has been active in the folk and Americana music scene since the 1970s.
Throughout history, the name Yarrow has maintained a connection to nature, literature, and artistic expression, reflecting its origins as a plant name and its association with poetic works.
People
Yarrow + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yarrow as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yarrow: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yarrow?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 134 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yarrow 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 2,557,868 US residents.
Is Yarrow a common name?
We classify Yarrow as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 140 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yarrow most popular?
The single biggest year for Yarrow was 2021, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yarrow is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yarrow in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 196 people with the name Yarrow, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,869 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 Yarrow 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 Yarrow?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yarrow on both sides of the split. Of the 200 people counted with this name, 59 were male (29.5%) and 141 were female (70.5%). 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 Yarrow?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yarrow is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.7%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Yarrow most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yarrow in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.6% (160 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 Yarrow in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yarrow a female name?
Yes, 61.4% of people registered as Yarrow in the SSA data are female. 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 Yarrow still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yarrow 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 Yarrow 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 Yarrow?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.