Langston
Langston was given to 227 boys in 2025, #1,000 among boys’ names; 7,664 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,230 Americans named Langston and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Langston by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Langston mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Langston is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “long, tall” (lang) and “stone” (stan).
From Old English lang (“long, tall”) + stan (“stone”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Langston?
#1,000 among boys’ names, 2025
Langston fell from #689 in 2015 to #1,000 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.19 to 0.13 per 1,000.
425 babies in 2016, the peak
Langston peaked in 2016, when 425 babies were given it (405 boys, #652 among boys’ names). The 234 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 55% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 227 | #1,000 | 0.13 |
| 2024 | 257 | #910 | 0.15 |
| 2023 | 261 | #892 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 320 | #789 | 0.18 |
| 2021 | 343 | #743 | 0.20 |
| 2020 | 367 | #694 | 0.21 |
| 2019 | 379 | #679 | 0.21 |
| 2018 | 359 | #682 | 0.20 |
| 2017 | 375 | #677 | 0.20 |
| 2016 | 405 | #652 | 0.21 |
Every recorded year (110)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 365 | #689 | 0.19 |
| 2014 | 317 | #748 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 209 | #958 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 170 | #1,099 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 177 | #1,065 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 180 | #1,078 | 0.09 |
| 2009 | 172 | #1,080 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 187 | #1,027 | 0.09 |
| 2007 | 142 | #1,240 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 98 | #1,531 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 111 | #1,356 | 0.06 |
| 2004 | 86 | #1,542 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 96 | #1,394 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 88 | #1,451 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 82 | #1,489 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 72 | #1,628 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 66 | #1,633 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 66 | #1,589 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 73 | #1,472 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 43 | #2,034 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 66 | #1,466 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 54 | #1,680 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 53 | #1,669 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 57 | #1,555 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 44 | #1,811 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 40 | #1,919 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 28 | #2,385 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 31 | #2,067 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 18 | #2,899 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 21 | #2,569 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 16 | #3,021 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 21 | #2,405 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 16 | #2,858 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 29 | #1,917 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 29 | #1,927 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 17 | #2,796 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 16 | #2,849 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 9 | #4,030 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 20 | #2,320 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 8 | #4,226 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 9 | #3,804 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 17 | #2,411 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 11 | #3,136 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 24 | #1,854 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 19 | #2,174 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 12 | #2,808 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 13 | #2,491 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 9 | #3,003 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,294 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,274 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,705 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 8 | #3,168 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 11 | #2,610 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,851 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 9 | #3,005 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 16 | #2,082 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 7 | #3,445 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 16 | #2,069 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 6 | #3,790 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 9 | #2,887 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 11 | #2,500 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 9 | #2,858 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,279 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 13 | #2,212 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 7 | #3,223 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 9 | #2,679 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 18 | #1,793 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 18 | #1,787 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 20 | #1,713 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 14 | #1,991 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 15 | #1,823 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 16 | #1,786 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 12 | #2,232 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 9 | #2,617 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 7 | #3,009 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #3,305 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 10 | #2,368 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 9 | #2,569 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 7 | #3,054 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 16 | #1,798 | 0.02 |
| 1934 | 14 | #1,976 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 8 | #2,871 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 9 | #2,746 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,072 | under 0.01 |
| 1930 | 9 | #2,896 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 11 | #2,521 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 14 | #2,257 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,037 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 8 | #3,388 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,321 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,402 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 6 | #4,118 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 14 | #2,286 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 6 | #3,968 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 11 | #2,629 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 11 | #2,498 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,125 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,524 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 11 | #1,746 | 0.02 |
| 1912 | 6 | #2,429 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Langston a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 7,664 Americans recorded as Langston, 5% are girls and 95% boys. In 2025 it went to 7 girls and 227 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Langston: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Langston, and how old are they?
7,230 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 7,664 Americans ever recorded as Langston. The median Langston alive today is 11 years old; half are between 6 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 5,039 people named Langston (302 women and girls, 4,737 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,585 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 36 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 137 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 181 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 540 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,340 |
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 Langston born?
The states with the most babies named Langston are Georgia, Texas and Ohio, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 19 | #554 | 1.9× |
| Texas | 15 | #1,330 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 13 | #695 | 0.6× |
| Virginia | 12 | #610 | 1.2× |
| California | 11 | #1,548 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 11 | #807 | 1.2× |
| Tennessee | 11 | #655 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 11 | #1,169 | 0.5× |
| Missouri | 11 | #543 | 0.9× |
| Oklahoma | 11 | #411 | 1.2× |
Where Langston is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Langston is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1912 it was given 1.9 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 Langston with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Langston
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 Langston and names like it
- Compare Langston and NikolaiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sLangston peaked in 2016.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Langston since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Langston: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Langston.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Langston alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.