How rare is the name Chester?

35,868 people in the United States have the first name Chester, about 1 in 8,421. It ranks #1,130 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

CHESTER

#1,130

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
35,868
About
1 in 8,421
This common or more
71.7%
Who bears it

Of the 35,868 people named Chester, 73.1% reported their origin as White, 17.7% as Black and 3.5% as Asian or Pacific Islander. Virtually all are male (99.6%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Chester peaked in 1920, when 3,726 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1920
Births that year
3,726
In 2025*
107 ▼97%
Recorded as
almost entirely male

At least 122,302 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Chester by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1910s, when it ranked #131. The largest share of babies named Chester, 42.1%, were born between 1901 and 1927, the Greatest Generation's birth years.

1880s#1722,699
1890s#2063,039
1900s#2263,830
1910s#13123,673
1920s#16628,675
1930s#26814,527
1940s#31815,404
1950s#42512,858
1960s#6456,807
1970s#8524,150
1980s#1,1752,801
1990s#2,0231,549
2000s#3,629884
2010s#3,984840
2020s#3,694566
Before 19015%
Greatest Generation 1901–2742.1%
Silent Generation 1928–4522.7%
Baby boom 1946–6419%
Generation X 1965–805.9%
Millennials 1981–963%
Generation Z 1997–121.2%
2013 and later1%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Chester is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Chester has been most common in Kentucky (2.7×), Arkansas (2.2×), and West Virginia (2.1×), and least common in Utah (0.15×).

107,841 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Chester

#1,128 Esperanza · 36,013#1,129 Makenzie · 35,977#1,131 Shari · 35,862#1,132 Laila · 35,860

Also a last name

As a last name, Chester ranks #2,555 of 156,621, with 13,798 people. See Chester as a last name

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