Pearson
Pearson was given to 31 boys in 2025, #3,638 among boys’ names; 1,678 Americans have been recorded with it since 1898 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,460 Americans named Pearson and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (87% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 8 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Pearson by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Pearson mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Pearson is “a patronymic surname transferred from the given name.”
From Piers + -son.
/ˈpɪɹ.sən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Pearson?
#3,638 among boys’ names, 2025
Pearson fell from #2,556 in 2015 to #3,638 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 25.6 to 18.1 per million.
69 babies in 2019, the peak
Pearson peaked in 2019, when 69 babies were given it (58 boys, #2,354 among boys’ names). The 31 births of 2025 are 45% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 31 | #3,638 | 18.1 |
| 2024 | 47 | #2,785 | 27.3 |
| 2023 | 41 | #3,043 | 24.0 |
| 2022 | 44 | #2,902 | 25.2 |
| 2021 | 45 | #2,804 | 25.7 |
| 2020 | 42 | #2,875 | 24.3 |
| 2019 | 58 | #2,354 | 32.3 |
| 2018 | 39 | #3,038 | 21.5 |
| 2017 | 55 | #2,375 | 29.7 |
| 2016 | 51 | #2,508 | 26.9 |
Every recorded year (79)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 49 | #2,556 | 25.6 |
| 2014 | 39 | #2,968 | 20.3 |
| 2013 | 34 | #3,245 | 18.0 |
| 2012 | 48 | #2,582 | 25.3 |
| 2011 | 35 | #3,223 | 18.4 |
| 2010 | 39 | #2,995 | 20.3 |
| 2009 | 38 | #3,090 | 19.2 |
| 2008 | 52 | #2,454 | 25.5 |
| 2007 | 37 | #3,119 | 17.8 |
| 2006 | 46 | #2,613 | 22.4 |
| 2005 | 30 | #3,363 | 15.0 |
| 2004 | 32 | #3,130 | 16.1 |
| 2003 | 31 | #3,091 | 15.7 |
| 2002 | 34 | #2,800 | 17.5 |
| 2001 | 35 | #2,719 | 18.0 |
| 2000 | 27 | #3,197 | 13.7 |
| 1999 | 37 | #2,441 | 19.3 |
| 1998 | 25 | #3,161 | 13.1 |
| 1997 | 16 | #4,182 | 8.5 |
| 1996 | 22 | #3,265 | 11.6 |
| 1995 | 17 | #3,801 | 8.9 |
| 1994 | 11 | #5,355 | 5.7 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,920 | 6.1 |
| 1992 | 15 | #4,044 | 7.5 |
| 1991 | 11 | #5,006 | 5.4 |
| 1990 | 12 | #4,592 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,739 | 3.5 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,585 | 4.2 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,920 | 3.7 |
| 1986 | 8 | #5,205 | 4.3 |
| 1985 | 13 | #3,546 | 7.0 |
| 1984 | 9 | #4,450 | 5.0 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,325 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 5 | #7,002 | 2.8 |
| 1980 | 9 | #4,403 | 5.0 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,585 | 3.7 |
| 1975 | 5 | #6,069 | 3.2 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,457 | 2.8 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,953 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 6 | #3,874 | 2.8 |
| 1951 | 5 | #4,113 | 2.7 |
| 1950 | 7 | #3,247 | 3.9 |
| 1946 | 5 | #3,893 | 3.1 |
| 1944 | 5 | #3,790 | 3.7 |
| 1941 | 8 | #2,827 | 6.5 |
| 1940 | 7 | #3,060 | 6.0 |
| 1939 | 6 | #3,394 | 5.4 |
| 1938 | 8 | #2,807 | 7.2 |
| 1937 | 7 | #3,110 | 6.6 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,938 | 4.8 |
| 1934 | 5 | #4,083 | 4.8 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,035 | 5.0 |
| 1930 | 12 | #2,415 | 10.9 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,405 | 4.6 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,088 | 5.3 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,672 | 4.5 |
| 1925 | 8 | #3,325 | 7.2 |
| 1924 | 8 | #3,432 | 7.1 |
| 1923 | 7 | #3,728 | 6.4 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,465 | 7.4 |
| 1921 | 13 | #2,474 | 11.8 |
| 1920 | 9 | #3,153 | 8.5 |
| 1919 | 16 | #2,039 | 16.3 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,121 | 9.0 |
| 1915 | 12 | #2,270 | 14.1 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,412 | 13.7 |
| 1912 | 5 | #2,815 | 11.6 |
| 1905 | 5 | #1,379 | 37.8 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,260 | 40.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Pearson a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,678 Americans recorded as Pearson, 8% are girls and 92% boys. In 2025 it went to 31 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Pearson: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Pearson, and how old are they?
1,460 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 87% of the 1,678 Americans ever recorded as Pearson. The median Pearson alive today is 15 years old; half are between 8 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 1,592 people named Pearson (297 women and girls, 1,295 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,209 born in the U.S. The Census count is 32% 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 | 13 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 18 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 23 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 157 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 598 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 651 |
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 Pearson born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 7 | #2,233 | 0.7× |
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 Pearson 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 5,311 babies since 1880, Pearson is the second most given (32% of them). In 2025 it was given to 31 of their 169 babies (18%), again the second 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 Pearson
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 Pearson and names like it
- Compare Pearson and PiersonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sPearson peaked in 2019.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Pearson since 1910.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Pearson.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Pearson alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with PMost given first.