Austen
Austen is given to both girls and boys: 44 girls and 53 boys were given it in 2025 (#3,468 among girls’ names and #2,518 among boys’, #3,602 among all names counting both); 9,416 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,160 Americans named Austen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 16 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Austen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Austen mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Austen is “a male given name.”
Also “an English surname transferred from the given name; a variant of Austin.”
/ˈɔstɪn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Austen?
#2,518 among boys’ names, 2025
Austen fell from #1,427 in 2015 to #2,518 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 62.6 to 31.0 per million.
567 babies in 1995, the peak
Austen peaked in 1995, when 567 babies were given it (540 boys, #420 among boys’ names). The 97 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 17% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 44 | #3,468 | 53 | #2,518 |
| 2024 | 55 | #2,976 | 80 | #1,958 |
| 2023 | 53 | #3,101 | 60 | #2,318 |
| 2022 | 57 | #2,930 | 70 | #2,118 |
| 2021 | 71 | #2,488 | 77 | #1,944 |
| 2020 | 49 | #3,185 | 72 | #1,979 |
| 2019 | 72 | #2,453 | 108 | #1,549 |
| 2018 | 53 | #3,058 | 80 | #1,873 |
| 2017 | 73 | #2,468 | 88 | #1,748 |
| 2016 | 92 | #2,118 | 95 | #1,664 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 61 | #2,850 | 120 | #1,427 |
| 2014 | 43 | #3,594 | 127 | #1,348 |
| 2013 | 25 | #5,334 | 125 | #1,353 |
| 2012 | 26 | #5,277 | 139 | #1,266 |
| 2011 | 28 | #4,935 | 150 | #1,178 |
| 2010 | 27 | #5,121 | 150 | #1,196 |
| 2009 | 17 | #7,372 | 147 | #1,218 |
| 2008 | 8 | #12,725 | 170 | #1,090 |
| 2007 | 20 | #6,590 | 166 | #1,098 |
| 2006 | 21 | #6,155 | 202 | #932 |
| 2005 | 11 | #9,538 | 184 | #949 |
| 2004 | 12 | #8,789 | 157 | #1,038 |
| 2003 | 16 | #6,924 | 174 | #941 |
| 2002 | 16 | #6,730 | 205 | #818 |
| 2001 | 12 | #8,251 | 214 | #787 |
| 2000 | 10 | #9,242 | 248 | #705 |
| 1999 | 11 | #8,284 | 340 | #574 |
| 1998 | 17 | #5,831 | 384 | #532 |
| 1997 | 21 | #4,840 | 489 | #449 |
| 1996 | 18 | #5,305 | 531 | #423 |
| 1995 | 27 | #3,887 | 540 | #420 |
| 1994 | 36 | #3,167 | 403 | #502 |
| 1993 | 29 | #3,682 | 328 | #563 |
| 1992 | 29 | #3,688 | 260 | #636 |
| 1991 | 15 | #5,969 | 227 | #671 |
| 1990 | 17 | #5,310 | 210 | #702 |
| 1989 | 18 | #4,871 | 177 | #741 |
| 1988 | 13 | #5,922 | 145 | #782 |
| 1987 | 10 | #6,828 | 96 | #960 |
| 1986 | 11 | #6,201 | 90 | #964 |
| 1985 | 15 | #4,879 | 80 | #1,020 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,459 | 68 | #1,083 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,114 | 61 | #1,154 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,327 | 52 | #1,294 |
| 1981 | 5 | #10,552 | 43 | #1,457 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,189 | 39 | #1,548 |
| 1979 | under 5 | 20 | #2,387 | |
| 1978 | under 5 | 14 | #2,941 | |
| 1977 | under 5 | 13 | #3,053 | |
| 1976 | under 5 | 10 | #3,491 | |
| 1975 | under 5 | 11 | #3,264 | |
| 1968 | under 5 | 5 | #4,176 | |
| 1957 | under 5 | 5 | #4,021 | |
| 1926 | under 5 | 7 | #3,410 | |
| 1925 | under 5 | 5 | #4,248 | |
| 1923 | under 5 | 6 | #3,850 | |
| 1917 | under 5 | 5 | #4,029 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Austen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 9,416 Americans recorded as Austen, 14% are girls and 86% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Austen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Austen, and how old are they?
9,160 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 9,416 Americans ever recorded as Austen. The median Austen alive today is 27 years old; half are between 16 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 7,627 people named Austen (931 women and girls, 6,696 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,521 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 108 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,430 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,720 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,890 |
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 Austen born?
The states with the most babies named Austen are California, Texas and New York, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 6 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Texas | 5 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 5 | #1,787 | 0.4× |
Where Austen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Austen is most over-represented in Texas: since 1917 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
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 Austen 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 470,945 babies since 1880, Austen is the third most given (2.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 97 of their 3,648 babies (2.7%), again the third 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 Austen
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 Austen and names like it
- Compare Austen and AustinBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sAusten peaked in 1995.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Austen since 1910.
- The top names of 1995The year the most babies were named Austen.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Austen alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.