Whitney
Whitney was given to 238 girls in 2025, #1,046 among girls’ names; 103,657 Americans have been recorded with it since 1884 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 99,000 Americans named Whitney and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 32 and 40.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Whitney by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Whitney mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Whitney is “a female given name transferred from the surname, popular in the 1980s and 1990s due to the fame of Whitney Houston.” Its etymology gives the senses “white” (hwīt) and “island” (īeġ) and “white island” (,).
Also “a male given name from surname.”
From Old English hwītan, dative of hwīt (“white”) + īeġ (“island”), “white island”.
/ˈwɪtni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Whitney?
#1,046 among girls’ names, 2025
Whitney fell from #640 in 2015 to #1,046 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.25 to 0.15 per 1,000.
9,781 babies in 1986, the peak
Whitney peaked in 1986, when 9,781 babies were given it (9,536 girls, #32 among girls’ names). The 251 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 3% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 238 | #1,046 | 0.15 |
| 2024 | 238 | #1,051 | 0.15 |
| 2023 | 262 | #982 | 0.16 |
| 2022 | 245 | #1,047 | 0.15 |
| 2021 | 246 | #1,034 | 0.15 |
| 2020 | 273 | #941 | 0.17 |
| 2019 | 303 | #888 | 0.18 |
| 2018 | 299 | #902 | 0.18 |
| 2017 | 328 | #830 | 0.19 |
| 2016 | 375 | #761 | 0.21 |
Every recorded year (89)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 446 | #640 | 0.25 |
| 2014 | 463 | #622 | 0.26 |
| 2013 | 482 | #591 | 0.27 |
| 2012 | 523 | #562 | 0.30 |
| 2011 | 563 | #519 | 0.32 |
| 2010 | 541 | #544 | 0.30 |
| 2009 | 595 | #508 | 0.32 |
| 2008 | 543 | #570 | 0.29 |
| 2007 | 533 | #564 | 0.28 |
| 2006 | 564 | #535 | 0.30 |
| 2005 | 652 | #471 | 0.35 |
| 2004 | 676 | #450 | 0.37 |
| 2003 | 675 | #445 | 0.37 |
| 2002 | 851 | #350 | 0.47 |
| 2001 | 899 | #342 | 0.50 |
| 2000 | 1,194 | #271 | 0.66 |
| 1999 | 1,426 | #222 | 0.80 |
| 1998 | 1,611 | #193 | 0.91 |
| 1997 | 1,961 | #158 | 1.1 |
| 1996 | 2,310 | #140 | 1.3 |
| 1995 | 2,780 | #115 | 1.6 |
| 1994 | 3,566 | #91 | 2.0 |
| 1993 | 4,078 | #82 | 2.3 |
| 1992 | 4,010 | #85 | 2.2 |
| 1991 | 5,239 | #68 | 2.8 |
| 1990 | 5,905 | #60 | 3.1 |
| 1989 | 6,305 | #57 | 3.4 |
| 1988 | 7,853 | #39 | 4.4 |
| 1987 | 8,923 | #32 | 5.1 |
| 1986 | 9,536 | #32 | 5.6 |
| 1985 | 3,832 | #73 | 2.2 |
| 1984 | 2,287 | #125 | 1.4 |
| 1983 | 1,688 | #164 | 1.0 |
| 1982 | 1,478 | #185 | 0.87 |
| 1981 | 1,302 | #204 | 0.78 |
| 1980 | 1,169 | #219 | 0.70 |
| 1979 | 950 | #254 | 0.59 |
| 1978 | 778 | #297 | 0.51 |
| 1977 | 693 | #335 | 0.45 |
| 1976 | 533 | #385 | 0.36 |
| 1975 | 412 | #458 | 0.28 |
| 1974 | 368 | #482 | 0.25 |
| 1973 | 294 | #560 | 0.20 |
| 1972 | 297 | #557 | 0.20 |
| 1971 | 327 | #552 | 0.20 |
| 1970 | 351 | #539 | 0.20 |
| 1969 | 288 | #584 | 0.17 |
| 1968 | 249 | #610 | 0.15 |
| 1967 | 220 | #645 | 0.13 |
| 1966 | 224 | #640 | 0.13 |
| 1965 | 296 | #553 | 0.17 |
| 1964 | 331 | #543 | 0.17 |
| 1963 | 271 | #611 | 0.14 |
| 1962 | 191 | #752 | 0.10 |
| 1961 | 48 | #1,638 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 29 | #2,193 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 11 | #4,023 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 19 | #2,749 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 14 | #3,301 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 11 | #3,904 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 10 | #4,062 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 11 | #3,714 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 11 | #3,682 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 20 | #2,405 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 15 | #2,775 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 8 | #4,224 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 6 | #5,229 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 13 | #3,057 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 11 | #3,212 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 9 | #3,379 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 9 | #3,372 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 8 | #3,794 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 11 | #2,978 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 10 | #3,019 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,954 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,933 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 13 | #2,442 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #4,244 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 6 | #4,166 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Whitney a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 103,657 Americans recorded as Whitney, 94% are girls and 6% boys. Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Whitney every year since 1962. In 2025 it went to 238 girls and 13 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Whitney: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Whitney, and how old are they?
99,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 103,657 Americans ever recorded as Whitney. The median Whitney alive today is 37 years old; half are between 32 and 40.
The 2020 Census counted 88,892 people named Whitney (85,495 women and girls, 3,397 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 98,438 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 166 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,610 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 8,190 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 70,800 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 13,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,330 |
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 Whitney born?
The states with the most babies named Whitney are Texas, New York and Florida, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 27 | #1,058 | 1.0× |
| New York | 22 | #754 | 0.4× |
| Florida | 15 | #1,050 | 0.8× |
| California | 13 | #1,738 | 0.5× |
| Massachusetts | 13 | #443 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 9 | #1,030 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 9 | #1,007 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 8 | #1,207 | 1.4× |
| Indiana | 8 | #807 | 1.3× |
| Virginia | 7 | #1,033 | 1.4× |
Where Whitney is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Whitney is most over-represented in Utah: since 1910 it was given 2.5 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 girls’ 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 Whitney 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 106,651 babies since 1880, Whitney is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 251 of their 251 babies (100%), 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 Whitney
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 Whitney and names like it
- Compare Whitney and WhittneyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sWhitney peaked in 1986.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Whitney since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Whitney: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1986The year the most babies were named Whitney.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Whitney alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with WMost given first.