Payne
Payne is given to both girls and boys: 5 girls and 9 boys were given it in 2025 (#16,669 among girls’ names and #8,740 among boys’, #13,387 among all names counting both); 1,316 Americans have been recorded with it since 1900 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,240 Americans named Payne and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 17 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Payne by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Payne?
#8,740 among boys’ names, 2025
Payne fell from #5,453 in 2015 to #8,740 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 8.9 to 5.3 per million.
121 babies in 2000, the peak
Payne peaked in 2000, when 121 boys were given it, #1,147 among boys’ names. The 14 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 12% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #8,740 | 5.3 |
| 2024 | 8 | #9,644 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 16 | #5,853 | 9.4 |
| 2022 | 12 | #7,130 | 6.9 |
| 2021 | 19 | #5,066 | 10.9 |
| 2020 | 16 | #5,630 | 9.3 |
| 2019 | 21 | #4,758 | 11.7 |
| 2018 | 14 | #6,245 | 7.7 |
| 2017 | 26 | #4,071 | 14.0 |
| 2016 | 14 | #6,264 | 7.4 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 17 | #5,453 | 8.9 |
| 2014 | 21 | #4,657 | 10.9 |
| 2013 | 19 | #4,922 | 10.0 |
| 2012 | 17 | #5,425 | 9.0 |
| 2011 | 24 | #4,182 | 12.6 |
| 2010 | 30 | #3,605 | 15.6 |
| 2009 | 34 | #3,315 | 17.1 |
| 2008 | 31 | #3,543 | 15.2 |
| 2007 | 38 | #3,068 | 18.3 |
| 2006 | 40 | #2,865 | 19.5 |
| 2005 | 44 | #2,550 | 22.0 |
| 2004 | 45 | #2,470 | 22.7 |
| 2003 | 55 | #2,069 | 27.8 |
| 2002 | 62 | #1,840 | 31.9 |
| 2001 | 81 | #1,507 | 41.7 |
| 2000 | 121 | #1,147 | 61.6 |
| 1999 | 41 | #2,253 | 21.4 |
| 1998 | 24 | #3,262 | 12.6 |
| 1997 | 23 | #3,237 | 12.2 |
| 1996 | 42 | #2,062 | 22.2 |
| 1995 | 40 | #2,085 | 21.0 |
| 1994 | 67 | #1,444 | 34.7 |
| 1993 | 54 | #1,652 | 27.5 |
| 1992 | 34 | #2,241 | 17.0 |
| 1991 | 16 | #3,766 | 7.9 |
| 1990 | 24 | #2,749 | 11.7 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,738 | 3.5 |
| 1988 | 10 | #4,689 | 5.2 |
| 1987 | 26 | #2,252 | 13.9 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,759 | 3.8 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,847 | 4.5 |
| 1924 | 7 | #3,768 | 6.2 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,735 | 4.6 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,434 | 5.4 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,794 | 6.7 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,256 | 5.9 |
| 1914 | 7 | #2,845 | 10.7 |
| 1911 | 6 | #1,690 | 26.6 |
| 1900 | 5 | #1,451 | 33.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Payne a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,316 Americans recorded as Payne, 1% are girls and 99% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Payne: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Payne, and how old are they?
1,240 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 1,316 Americans ever recorded as Payne. The median Payne alive today is 24 years old; half are between 17 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 1,341 people named Payne (116 women and girls, 1,225 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,168 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 319 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 703 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 215 |
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).
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Payne
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 Payne and names like it
- Compare Payne and DayshawnBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sPayne peaked in 2000.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Payne since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Payne.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Payne alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with PMost given first.