How rare is the name Whitney?

88,892 people in the United States have the first name Whitney, about 1 in 3,398. It ranks #598 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

WHITNEY

#598

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
88,892
About
1 in 3,398
This common or more
61.7%
Who bears it

Of the 88,892 people named Whitney, 74.8% reported their origin as White, 15.1% as Black and 4.7% as two or more races. 96.2% are female. These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Whitney peaked in 1986, when 9,781 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18842025
Peak year
1986
Births that year
9,781
In 2025*
251 ▼97%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 103,657 babies have been given the name since 1884. 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.

Whitney by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1980s, when it ranked #132. The largest share of babies named Whitney, 70.3%, were born between 1981 and 1996, as millennials.

1880s#2,37517
1890s#2,86521
1900s#2,50659
1910s#1,953334
1920s#2,121434
1930s#2,223357
1940s#2,021511
1950s#2,119629
1960s#1,0052,933
1970s#6965,837
1980s#13246,002
1990s#21633,188
2000s#8097,328
2010s#1,2494,415
2020s#1,8431,592
Before 19010%
Greatest Generation 1901–270.7%
Silent Generation 1928–450.7%
Baby boom 1946–642%
Generation X 1965–808.5%
Millennials 1981–9670.3%
Generation Z 1997–1213.5%
2013 and later4.2%

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 Whitney is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Whitney has been most common in Utah (3.6×), Kentucky (2.3×), and Idaho (2.3×), and least common in Rhode Island (0.12×).

97,944 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 Whitney

#596 Glenda · 89,345#597 Juana · 88,951#599 Cooper · 88,776#600 Natalia · 88,111

Spelled almost the same

6 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Whitney, most common first.

#9,638 Whittney · 1,430#18,901 Whitnee · 566#24,393 Whitnie · 395#24,726 Whitten · 388#25,807 Whitni · 365#53,270 Whitny · 101

Also a last name

As a last name, Whitney ranks #1,029 of 156,621, with 33,509 people. See Whitney as a last name

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