Ash
Ash was given to 175 boys in 2025, #1,177 among boys’ names; 2,680 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,660 Americans named Ash and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 4 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ash by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ash mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ash is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname.”
Also “a diminutive of the unisex given names Ashley and Ashleigh.”
/ˈæʃ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ash?
#1,177 among boys’ names, 2025
Ash rose from #1,613 in 2015 to #1,177 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.05 to 0.10 per 1,000.
221 babies in 2022, the peak
Ash peaked in 2022, when 221 babies were given it (202 boys, #1,078 among boys’ names). The 192 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 87% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 175 | #1,177 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 182 | #1,151 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 204 | #1,064 | 0.12 |
| 2022 | 202 | #1,078 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 197 | #1,076 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 183 | #1,084 | 0.11 |
| 2019 | 145 | #1,284 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 128 | #1,375 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 134 | #1,335 | 0.07 |
| 2016 | 140 | #1,295 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 99 | #1,613 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 68 | #2,063 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 59 | #2,207 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 65 | #2,090 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 55 | #2,319 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 51 | #2,429 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 49 | #2,562 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 40 | #2,952 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 38 | #3,028 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 46 | #2,584 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 46 | #2,465 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 29 | #3,284 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 33 | #2,925 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 29 | #3,101 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 24 | #3,513 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 24 | #3,425 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 23 | #3,377 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 21 | #3,494 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 15 | #4,255 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,189 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,538 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,534 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,117 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #5,528 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ash a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,680 Americans recorded as Ash, 5% are girls and 95% boys. In 2025 it went to 17 girls and 175 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ash: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ash, and how old are they?
2,660 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,680 Americans ever recorded as Ash. The median Ash alive today is 7 years old; half are between 4 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 4,027 people named Ash (1,471 women and girls, 2,556 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,486 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Ash rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 9 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 30 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 592 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,020 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ash born?
The states with the most babies named Ash are California, Texas and Ohio, with 39% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 23 | #960 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 14 | #1,353 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 10 | #806 | 0.5× |
| New York | 8 | #1,309 | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,012 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,039 | 0.4× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,642 | 0.5× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,010 | 1.1× |
| Oregon | 5 | #616 | 2.0× |
| Colorado | 5 | #859 | 1.1× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ash with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,736 babies since 1880, Ash is the most given (57% of them). In 2025 it was given to 192 of their 221 babies (87%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ash
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ash and names like it
- Compare Ash and AyushBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAsh peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ash since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Ash: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Ash.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ash alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.