Payson
Payson is given to both girls and boys: 47 girls and 36 boys were given it in 2025 (#3,334 among girls’ names and #3,291 among boys’, #4,038 among all names counting both); 2,612 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Payson every year since 2021.
An estimated 2,560 Americans named Payson and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 7 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Payson by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Payson?
#3,291 among boys’ names, 2025
Payson fell from #1,885 in 2015 to #3,291 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 40.7 to 21.1 per million.
171 babies in 2012, the peak
Payson peaked in 2012, when 171 babies were given it (60 boys, #2,199 among boys’ names). The 83 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 49% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 47 | #3,334 | 36 | #3,291 |
| 2024 | 38 | #3,946 | 50 | #2,658 |
| 2023 | 58 | #2,927 | 46 | #2,791 |
| 2022 | 61 | #2,812 | 39 | #3,138 |
| 2021 | 64 | #2,700 | 51 | #2,578 |
| 2020 | 38 | #3,824 | 51 | #2,534 |
| 2019 | 43 | #3,599 | 47 | #2,723 |
| 2018 | 46 | #3,428 | 56 | #2,375 |
| 2017 | 56 | #2,958 | 59 | #2,261 |
| 2016 | 54 | #3,092 | 71 | #2,023 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 68 | #2,640 | 78 | #1,885 |
| 2014 | 72 | #2,509 | 74 | #1,955 |
| 2013 | 99 | #1,987 | 57 | #2,270 |
| 2012 | 111 | #1,828 | 60 | #2,199 |
| 2011 | 116 | #1,768 | 51 | #2,466 |
| 2010 | 89 | #2,198 | 60 | #2,202 |
| 2009 | 19 | #7,001 | 72 | #1,971 |
| 2008 | 10 | #11,395 | 37 | #3,148 |
| 2007 | 10 | #11,427 | 49 | #2,556 |
| 2006 | 9 | #12,175 | 27 | #3,748 |
| 2005 | 12 | #9,308 | 43 | #2,595 |
| 2004 | 8 | #12,450 | 38 | #2,776 |
| 2003 | 9 | #11,099 | 27 | #3,416 |
| 2002 | 8 | #11,912 | 39 | #2,533 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,786 | 37 | #2,600 |
| 2000 | 9 | #10,519 | 32 | #2,841 |
| 1999 | under 5 | 25 | #3,252 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 25 | #3,160 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 8 | #7,097 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 12 | #5,097 | |
| 1995 | 6 | #12,923 | 13 | #4,713 |
| 1994 | under 5 | 9 | #6,211 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 16 | #3,960 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 7 | #7,189 | |
| 1991 | under 5 | 9 | #5,812 | |
| 1982 | under 5 | 5 | #7,090 | |
| 1960 | under 5 | 5 | #4,453 | |
| 1932 | under 5 | 7 | #3,289 | |
| 1929 | under 5 | 5 | #4,404 | |
| 1928 | under 5 | 5 | #4,590 | |
| 1917 | under 5 | 5 | #4,435 |
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 Payson a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,612 Americans recorded as Payson, 45% are girls and 55% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Payson: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Payson, and how old are they?
2,560 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,612 Americans ever recorded as Payson. The median Payson alive today is 12 years old; half are between 7 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 1,940 people named Payson (839 women and girls, 1,101 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,018 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 74 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,040 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,450 |
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 Payson born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | 15 | #704 | 3.9× |
Where Payson is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Payson is most over-represented in Arizona: since 1917 it was given 3.9 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 Payson 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 Payson
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 Payson and names like it
- Compare Payson and AvenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sPayson peaked in 2012.
- Arizona’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Payson since 1910.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Payson.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Payson alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with PMost given first.