Howard
Howard is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 207 births. Its best rank was 24th, in 1919–1920.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 2070.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19217,713 births
- Best rank
- #24first in 1919
- Since 1880
- 348,120people given the name
The story in the numbers
346,444 boys have been named Howard in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1921, with 7,713 births — 0.70% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 207 births in 2024, against 7,713 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1937, and the 1920s alone account for 20%. It has spent 139 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 79 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,676 girls have also been given it, 0.48% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Howard | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 4,349 | |
| 1890s | 5,949 | |
| 1900s | 8,014 | |
| 1910s | 46,596 | |
| 1920s | 70,348 | |
| 1930s | 51,495 | |
| 1940s | 53,530 | |
| 1950s | 47,855 | |
| 1960s | 28,701 | |
| 1970s | 12,983 | |
| 1980s | 7,052 | |
| 1990s | 3,915 | |
| 2000s | 2,477 | |
| 2010s | 2,111 | |
| 2020s | 1,069 |
In 1921, its biggest year
Howard was the 27th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1921 were John, Robert, William, James and Charles. See all of 1921.
Names that rose and fell with Howard
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Ralphpeak 1921
- Francispeak 1918
- Miltonpeak 1920
- Lloydpeak 1918
- Virgilpeak 1921
- Ervinpeak 1921
- Edmundpeak 1923
- Alvispeak 1924
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.