Stetson
Stetson was given to 2,662 boys in 2025, #136 among boys’ names; 15,725 Americans have been recorded with it since 1930 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 15,500 Americans named Stetson and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 4 years old and half are between 2 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Stetson by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Stetson mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Stetson is “a male given name.” Its etymology gives the senses “site in the Parish of South Brent” (Stidston) and “farmstead estate” (tūn).
A variant of Stitson, a habitational name from Stidston (“site in the Parish of South Brent”), from Middle English Stidewardesdoune, Stidewardeston, Stitewardeston, Styddeston, from Old English *Stīthweardes (genitive of *Stīthweard (personal name)) + tūn (“farmstead estate”).
(hat): From Stetson, an American brand of hat named after its manufacturer, John B. Stetson Company, itself named after John B. Stetson, who founded it in 1865. The hats were widely known in the 1870s and 1880s. Sol Steinmetz stated in 2010 that Stetson hat was first attested in 1900, but this is clearly mistaken, being several decades too late; it may be that what Steinmetz had meant to write is that Stetson alone as a common noun meaning a Stetson hat was first attested in 1900.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Stetson?
#136 among boys’ names, 2025
Stetson rose from #775 in 2015 to #136 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.16 to 1.6 per 1,000.
2,699 babies in 2025, the peak
Stetson peaked in 2025, when 2,699 babies were given it (2,662 boys, #136 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 2,337 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,662 | #136 | 1.6 |
| 2024 | 2,337 | #155 | 1.4 |
| 2023 | 1,990 | #183 | 1.2 |
| 2022 | 1,465 | #238 | 0.84 |
| 2021 | 879 | #371 | 0.50 |
| 2020 | 607 | #487 | 0.35 |
| 2019 | 517 | #545 | 0.29 |
| 2018 | 468 | #586 | 0.26 |
| 2017 | 402 | #645 | 0.22 |
| 2016 | 345 | #710 | 0.18 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 306 | #775 | 0.16 |
| 2014 | 272 | #833 | 0.14 |
| 2013 | 212 | #942 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 165 | #1,119 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 152 | #1,172 | 0.08 |
| 2010 | 145 | #1,227 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 126 | #1,366 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 121 | #1,406 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 98 | #1,605 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 94 | #1,572 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 94 | #1,522 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 73 | #1,743 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 80 | #1,586 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 88 | #1,454 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 76 | #1,583 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 105 | #1,254 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 107 | #1,199 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 109 | #1,155 | 0.06 |
| 1997 | 122 | #1,048 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 123 | #1,016 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 152 | #888 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 168 | #818 | 0.09 |
| 1993 | 159 | #837 | 0.08 |
| 1992 | 130 | #940 | 0.07 |
| 1991 | 124 | #955 | 0.06 |
| 1990 | 102 | #1,050 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 108 | #979 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 83 | #1,095 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 64 | #1,214 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 56 | #1,317 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 34 | #1,786 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 29 | #1,927 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 22 | #2,331 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 20 | #2,507 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,877 | under 0.01 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,480 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Stetson a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Stetson has been given almost only to boys: 121 girls in 46 years of records.
Girls and boys named Stetson: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Stetson, and how old are they?
15,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 15,725 Americans ever recorded as Stetson. The median Stetson alive today is 4 years old; half are between 2 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 4,822 people named Stetson (38 women and girls, 4,784 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,739 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 7 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,320 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,730 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 12,500 |
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 Stetson born?
The states with the most babies named Stetson are Texas, Tennessee and Georgia, with 24% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 346 | #116 | 1.5× |
| Tennessee | 151 | #43 | 1.6× |
| Georgia | 149 | #69 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 124 | #181 | 0.7× |
| Oklahoma | 117 | #16 | 3.6× |
| Alabama | 110 | #29 | 1.8× |
| Missouri | 104 | #54 | 1.7× |
| California | 104 | #343 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 99 | #127 | 0.8× |
| Kentucky | 79 | #54 | 1.2× |
Where Stetson is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Stetson is most over-represented in Idaho: since 1930 it was given 3.6 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 Stetson 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 15,931 babies since 1880, Stetson is the most given (99% of them). In 2025 it was given to 2,699 of their 2,747 babies (98%), 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 Stetson
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 Stetson and names like it
- Compare Stetson and StetsynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sStetson peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Stetson since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Stetson.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Stetson alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.