Payden
Payden is given to both girls and boys: 6 girls and 11 boys were given it in 2025 (#14,501 among girls’ names and #7,545 among boys’, #11,712 among all names counting both); 2,044 Americans have been recorded with it since 1986 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,010 Americans named Payden and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 14 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Payden by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Payden?
#7,545 among boys’ names, 2025
Payden fell from #3,009 in 2015 to #7,545 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 20.3 to 6.4 per million.
127 babies in 2008, the peak
Payden peaked in 2008, when 127 babies were given it (75 boys, #1,928 among boys’ names). The 17 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 13% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #14,501 | 11 | #7,545 |
| 2024 | 9 | #10,899 | 14 | #6,393 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,454 | 10 | #8,102 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,966 | 19 | #5,167 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,922 | 23 | #4,453 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,686 | 27 | #3,891 |
| 2019 | 13 | #8,491 | 14 | #6,321 |
| 2018 | 14 | #8,051 | 21 | #4,698 |
| 2017 | 18 | #6,738 | 21 | #4,698 |
| 2016 | 21 | #6,138 | 28 | #3,864 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 28 | #4,945 | 39 | #3,009 |
| 2014 | 27 | #5,134 | 38 | #3,021 |
| 2013 | 32 | #4,513 | 39 | #2,935 |
| 2012 | 36 | #4,194 | 51 | #2,473 |
| 2011 | 42 | #3,705 | 48 | #2,578 |
| 2010 | 52 | #3,190 | 63 | #2,136 |
| 2009 | 57 | #3,035 | 64 | #2,136 |
| 2008 | 52 | #3,254 | 75 | #1,928 |
| 2007 | 22 | #6,268 | 51 | #2,496 |
| 2006 | 20 | #6,539 | 56 | #2,271 |
| 2005 | 23 | #5,557 | 45 | #2,515 |
| 2004 | 16 | #7,307 | 48 | #2,365 |
| 2003 | 23 | #5,360 | 33 | #2,974 |
| 2002 | 19 | #6,060 | 41 | #2,457 |
| 2001 | 17 | #6,544 | 40 | #2,463 |
| 2000 | 16 | #6,717 | 24 | #3,498 |
| 1999 | 19 | #5,592 | 29 | #2,916 |
| 1998 | 17 | #5,996 | 32 | #2,632 |
| 1997 | 14 | #6,723 | 32 | #2,531 |
| 1996 | 18 | #5,461 | 40 | #2,129 |
| 1995 | 8 | #10,246 | 24 | #2,996 |
| 1994 | 10 | #8,606 | 39 | #2,106 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,522 | 33 | #2,325 |
| 1992 | 8 | #10,196 | 18 | #3,565 |
| 1991 | under 5 | 33 | #2,209 | |
| 1990 | under 5 | 28 | #2,471 | |
| 1989 | under 5 | 26 | #2,521 | |
| 1988 | under 5 | 23 | #2,570 | |
| 1987 | under 5 | 26 | #2,251 | |
| 1986 | under 5 | 17 | #2,971 |
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 Payden a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,044 Americans recorded as Payden, 34% are girls and 66% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Payden: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Payden, and how old are they?
2,010 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,044 Americans ever recorded as Payden. The median Payden alive today is 18 years old; half are between 14 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 1,611 people named Payden (583 women and girls, 1,028 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,875 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 347 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,160 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 502 |
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 Payden born?
The states with the most babies named Payden are Texas, Utah and California, with 73% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Utah is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 123 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Utah | 33 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| California | 24 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Oklahoma | 20 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Missouri | 15 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Tennessee | 7 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| New York | 6 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Mississippi | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Ohio | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
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 Payden 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 4,409 babies since 1880, Payden is the most given (46% of them). In 2025 it was given to 17 of their 34 babies (50%), 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 Payden
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 Payden and names like it
- Compare Payden and PadenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sPayden peaked in 2008.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Payden since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Payden.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Payden alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with PMost given first.