Houston
Houston was given to 402 boys in 2025, #675 among boys’ names; 18,540 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,900 Americans named Houston and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (70% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 9 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Houston by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Houston mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Houston is “a male given name transferred from the surname, of mainly American usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “Hugh's town” (of).
Originally from a place near Glasgow, from the Middle English equivalent of “Hugh’s town”. Analyzable as Hugh + -s- + -ton
/ˈhjustən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Houston?
#675 among boys’ names, 2025
Houston rose from #852 in 2015 to #675 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.14 to 0.24 per 1,000.
469 babies in 2021, the peak
Houston peaked in 2021, when 469 babies were given it (440 boys, #625 among boys’ names). The 413 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 88% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 402 | #675 | 0.24 |
| 2024 | 381 | #706 | 0.22 |
| 2023 | 387 | #689 | 0.23 |
| 2022 | 380 | #696 | 0.22 |
| 2021 | 440 | #625 | 0.25 |
| 2020 | 336 | #731 | 0.19 |
| 2019 | 374 | #686 | 0.21 |
| 2018 | 314 | #753 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 284 | #805 | 0.15 |
| 2016 | 287 | #804 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (146)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 264 | #852 | 0.14 |
| 2014 | 227 | #933 | 0.12 |
| 2013 | 206 | #972 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 217 | #939 | 0.11 |
| 2011 | 210 | #945 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 238 | #880 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 219 | #939 | 0.11 |
| 2008 | 243 | #872 | 0.12 |
| 2007 | 256 | #835 | 0.12 |
| 2006 | 243 | #836 | 0.12 |
| 2005 | 218 | #845 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 215 | #827 | 0.11 |
| 2003 | 209 | #834 | 0.11 |
| 2002 | 186 | #881 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 195 | #834 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 214 | #775 | 0.11 |
| 1999 | 209 | #762 | 0.11 |
| 1998 | 226 | #727 | 0.12 |
| 1997 | 251 | #655 | 0.13 |
| 1996 | 267 | #635 | 0.14 |
| 1995 | 264 | #639 | 0.14 |
| 1994 | 270 | #632 | 0.14 |
| 1993 | 211 | #712 | 0.11 |
| 1992 | 190 | #749 | 0.10 |
| 1991 | 218 | #681 | 0.11 |
| 1990 | 196 | #726 | 0.10 |
| 1989 | 185 | #724 | 0.09 |
| 1988 | 172 | #715 | 0.09 |
| 1987 | 171 | #696 | 0.09 |
| 1986 | 133 | #786 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 94 | #941 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 107 | #851 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 88 | #943 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 82 | #998 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 68 | #1,104 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 64 | #1,140 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 56 | #1,232 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 55 | #1,209 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 40 | #1,461 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 47 | #1,295 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 47 | #1,245 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 36 | #1,454 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 39 | #1,334 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 42 | #1,298 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 59 | #1,062 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 61 | #1,046 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 56 | #1,032 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 73 | #855 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 77 | #819 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 50 | #1,038 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 73 | #862 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 75 | #886 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 70 | #893 | 0.03 |
| 1962 | 52 | #1,060 | 0.03 |
| 1961 | 58 | #1,029 | 0.03 |
| 1960 | 50 | #1,104 | 0.02 |
| 1959 | 52 | #1,073 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 73 | #886 | 0.03 |
| 1957 | 70 | #910 | 0.03 |
| 1956 | 86 | #804 | 0.04 |
| 1955 | 82 | #808 | 0.04 |
| 1954 | 90 | #751 | 0.04 |
| 1953 | 102 | #701 | 0.05 |
| 1952 | 96 | #716 | 0.05 |
| 1951 | 99 | #699 | 0.05 |
| 1950 | 89 | #727 | 0.05 |
| 1949 | 100 | #684 | 0.06 |
| 1948 | 96 | #684 | 0.05 |
| 1947 | 121 | #621 | 0.07 |
| 1946 | 105 | #627 | 0.06 |
| 1945 | 97 | #614 | 0.07 |
| 1944 | 111 | #582 | 0.08 |
| 1943 | 108 | #609 | 0.08 |
| 1942 | 117 | #573 | 0.08 |
| 1941 | 112 | #568 | 0.09 |
| 1940 | 126 | #519 | 0.11 |
| 1939 | 88 | #623 | 0.08 |
| 1938 | 121 | #531 | 0.11 |
| 1937 | 95 | #595 | 0.09 |
| 1936 | 100 | #578 | 0.10 |
| 1935 | 95 | #594 | 0.09 |
| 1934 | 110 | #565 | 0.11 |
| 1933 | 105 | #559 | 0.11 |
| 1932 | 134 | #496 | 0.13 |
| 1931 | 123 | #522 | 0.12 |
| 1930 | 126 | #533 | 0.11 |
| 1929 | 139 | #497 | 0.13 |
| 1928 | 150 | #493 | 0.14 |
| 1927 | 153 | #492 | 0.14 |
| 1926 | 156 | #481 | 0.14 |
| 1925 | 154 | #491 | 0.14 |
| 1924 | 172 | #471 | 0.15 |
| 1923 | 147 | #504 | 0.13 |
| 1922 | 164 | #481 | 0.15 |
| 1921 | 170 | #470 | 0.15 |
| 1920 | 174 | #461 | 0.16 |
| 1919 | 171 | #449 | 0.17 |
| 1918 | 167 | #460 | 0.16 |
| 1917 | 154 | #457 | 0.17 |
| 1916 | 158 | #444 | 0.18 |
| 1915 | 145 | #457 | 0.17 |
| 1914 | 106 | #471 | 0.16 |
| 1913 | 83 | #479 | 0.16 |
| 1912 | 58 | #518 | 0.13 |
| 1911 | 34 | #509 | 0.15 |
| 1910 | 41 | #427 | 0.21 |
| 1909 | 34 | #428 | 0.21 |
| 1908 | 39 | #368 | 0.25 |
| 1907 | 32 | #399 | 0.22 |
| 1906 | 24 | #459 | 0.18 |
| 1905 | 28 | #405 | 0.21 |
| 1904 | 27 | #404 | 0.21 |
| 1903 | 27 | #378 | 0.23 |
| 1902 | 30 | #362 | 0.24 |
| 1901 | 31 | #319 | 0.29 |
| 1900 | 33 | #389 | 0.22 |
| 1899 | 14 | #528 | 0.13 |
| 1898 | 18 | #496 | 0.15 |
| 1897 | 20 | #428 | 0.18 |
| 1896 | 29 | #361 | 0.24 |
| 1895 | 22 | #422 | 0.19 |
| 1894 | 18 | #472 | 0.16 |
| 1893 | 17 | #456 | 0.15 |
| 1892 | 14 | #561 | 0.11 |
| 1891 | 20 | #391 | 0.20 |
| 1890 | 13 | #548 | 0.12 |
| 1889 | 11 | #603 | 0.10 |
| 1888 | 23 | #390 | 0.19 |
| 1887 | 16 | #432 | 0.16 |
| 1886 | 24 | #351 | 0.22 |
| 1885 | 13 | #533 | 0.12 |
| 1884 | 15 | #497 | 0.13 |
| 1883 | 16 | #454 | 0.15 |
| 1882 | 17 | #443 | 0.15 |
| 1881 | 11 | #545 | 0.11 |
| 1880 | 16 | #451 | 0.14 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Houston a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 18,540 Americans recorded as Houston, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 11 girls and 402 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Houston: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Houston, and how old are they?
12,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 70% of the 18,540 Americans ever recorded as Houston. The median Houston alive today is 22 years old; half are between 9 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 9,835 people named Houston (314 women and girls, 9,521 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,170 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 378 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,000 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 769 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,610 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,450 |
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 Houston born?
The states with the most babies named Houston are Texas, Tennessee and Ohio, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 32 | #833 | 1.2× |
| Tennessee | 28 | #315 | 3.8× |
| Ohio | 27 | #400 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 26 | #420 | 1.4× |
| Alabama | 23 | #242 | 4.2× |
| Kentucky | 22 | #246 | 1.8× |
| Georgia | 20 | #526 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 18 | #821 | 0.7× |
| Oklahoma | 15 | #316 | 2.3× |
| Missouri | 15 | #425 | 0.8× |
Where Houston is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Houston is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1910 it was given 4.2 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 Houston 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 18,545 babies since 1880, Houston is the most given (100% of them). In 2025 it was given to 413 of their 413 babies (100%), 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 Houston
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 Houston and names like it
- Compare Houston and HostonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sHouston peaked in 2021.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Houston since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Houston: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Houston.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Houston alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with HMost given first.