Paxton
Paxton was given to 988 boys in 2025, #338 among boys’ names; 30,318 Americans have been recorded with it since 1921 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 29,900 Americans named Paxton and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 6 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Paxton by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Paxton mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Paxton is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “settlement of (a person named) *Pæcc” (literally).
From Old English *Pæcces + tūn (literally “settlement of (a person named) *Pæcc”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Paxton?
#338 among boys’ names, 2025
Paxton fell from #229 in 2015 to #338 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.87 to 0.58 per 1,000.
2,084 babies in 2016, the peak
Paxton peaked in 2016, when 2,084 babies were given it (1,993 boys, #203 among boys’ names). The 1,037 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 50% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 988 | #338 | 0.58 |
| 2024 | 1,170 | #288 | 0.68 |
| 2023 | 1,357 | #257 | 0.79 |
| 2022 | 1,350 | #257 | 0.77 |
| 2021 | 1,392 | #256 | 0.80 |
| 2020 | 1,301 | #262 | 0.75 |
| 2019 | 1,450 | #252 | 0.81 |
| 2018 | 1,694 | #221 | 0.93 |
| 2017 | 1,909 | #207 | 1.0 |
| 2016 | 1,993 | #203 | 1.1 |
Every recorded year (81)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,677 | #229 | 0.87 |
| 2014 | 1,432 | #260 | 0.75 |
| 2013 | 1,356 | #262 | 0.72 |
| 2012 | 1,496 | #242 | 0.79 |
| 2011 | 1,287 | #273 | 0.68 |
| 2010 | 1,110 | #296 | 0.58 |
| 2009 | 979 | #327 | 0.49 |
| 2008 | 697 | #420 | 0.34 |
| 2007 | 456 | #565 | 0.22 |
| 2006 | 267 | #780 | 0.13 |
| 2005 | 211 | #872 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 197 | #882 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 174 | #943 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 197 | #845 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 162 | #951 | 0.08 |
| 2000 | 161 | #945 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 168 | #895 | 0.09 |
| 1998 | 156 | #916 | 0.08 |
| 1997 | 144 | #938 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 91 | #1,233 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 97 | #1,177 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 104 | #1,105 | 0.05 |
| 1993 | 73 | #1,332 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 66 | #1,407 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 43 | #1,851 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 17 | #3,561 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 37 | #1,979 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 25 | #2,413 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 17 | #3,037 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 24 | #2,340 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 21 | #2,483 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 19 | #2,598 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 18 | #2,643 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 18 | #2,674 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 19 | #2,551 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 21 | #2,424 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 19 | #2,531 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 18 | #2,538 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 24 | #2,049 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 26 | #1,916 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 21 | #2,184 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 35 | #1,492 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 40 | #1,324 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 47 | #1,206 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 54 | #1,121 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 48 | #1,203 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 28 | #1,555 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 10 | #2,867 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 12 | #2,440 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 12 | #2,424 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #3,470 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 11 | #2,621 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 8 | #3,257 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 11 | #2,633 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 18 | #1,986 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #3,573 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 10 | #2,767 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 8 | #3,136 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #4,248 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,125 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 6 | #3,607 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 5 | #4,055 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 9 | #2,820 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 5 | #3,911 | under 0.01 |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,026 | under 0.01 |
| 1931 | 6 | #3,663 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 5 | #4,589 | under 0.01 |
| 1925 | 6 | #4,081 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 7 | #3,767 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,390 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 7 | #3,791 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Paxton a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 30,318 Americans recorded as Paxton, 7% are girls and 93% boys. Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Paxton every year since 1995. In 2025 it went to 49 girls and 988 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Paxton: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Paxton, and how old are they?
29,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 30,318 Americans ever recorded as Paxton. The median Paxton alive today is 10 years old; half are between 6 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 20,759 people named Paxton (1,618 women and girls, 19,141 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 22,411 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 72 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 374 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,010 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,590 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 19,900 |
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 Paxton born?
The states with the most babies named Paxton are Texas, California and Ohio, with 21% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 87 | #423 | 0.8× |
| California | 61 | #506 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 54 | #268 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 47 | #419 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 41 | #284 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 39 | #314 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 38 | #235 | 1.4× |
| Kentucky | 37 | #148 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 35 | #311 | 0.7× |
| Washington | 33 | #240 | 1.4× |
Where Paxton is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Paxton is most over-represented in Idaho: since 1921 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 Paxton 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 31,691 babies since 1880, Paxton is the most given (96% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,037 of their 1,100 babies (94%), 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 Paxton
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 Paxton and names like it
- Compare Paxton and PaxtynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sPaxton peaked in 2016.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Paxton since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Paxton: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Paxton.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Paxton alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with PMost given first.