Payten
Feminine · “From Peyton”
Payten is given to both — 3,344 girls and 631 boys since 1880. See Payten as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Payten is one of the spellings of Peyton, an English place-name surname that crossed from sons to daughters in the late twentieth century. Two Peytons stand out in American history and fiction: the man who presided over the First Continental Congress, and the Confederate planter of Ambrose Bierce's most famous story.
How old is the name Payten?
Payten first appears in US birth records in 1992 — 33 years ago. The typical Payten alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 3,300 people named Payten are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Payten most popular?
Payten peaked in 2009, reaching #884 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 6,607 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Paega's tun to Payten
The story of Payten
Peyton came to Virginia as a surname and became a Tidewater first name; Peyton Randolph was elected the first president of the Continental Congress when it met in Philadelphia in 1774. In Ambrose Bierce's 1890 story 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', Peyton Farquhar, about to be hanged by Union soldiers, imagines his whole escape in the instant before the rope goes taut. In the late twentieth century Peyton and its spellings, Payton and Payten among them, crossed to daughters, though a real minority of the children given this spelling are boys.
Meaning
From Peyton, an English place-name surname
Peyton is an English place name meaning 'farmstead of Paega', from an Old English personal name and tun, 'farmstead'.
How the name formed
- Paega's tun
- Peyton
- Payten
Related forms: Peyton · Payton
Pronouncing Payten
PAY-tun
Two syllables with the stress on the first.
Nicknames for Payten
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1992
- Most girls named
- 2009310 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #884reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- −12.5%14 in 2025, from 16
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Payten in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Peyton in English — spelling variant
- Payton in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Michigan.
Paytens among us
people named Payten are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Payten
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Gwenda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Payten's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gwenda climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gwenda's path sketches the road Payten is walking now.
Payten sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Payten beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Payten in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds like Peyton, a name most people know.
- A real English surname with deep Virginia roots.
- Works for either child.
- Peyton and Payton are the spellings people expect.
- Most children with this spelling are girls, but a real minority are boys; either may be taken for the other.
- It is closely tied to its era.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Payten
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Paytens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Payten are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Payten in 2025?
- Payten ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Payten?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Payten — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Payten with classmates?
- Payten will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Payten
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Payten? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Payten and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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