Whitman
Masculine · “the fair-haired man”
Whitman is an English surname and a plain description: the white man, meaning fair-haired or pale-complexioned. It has been carried by an American poet whose work made it familiar far beyond England.
How old is the name Whitman?
Whitman first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Whitman alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 800 people named Whitman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Whitman most popular?
Whitman peaked in 1909, reaching #1440 nationally. Today it ranks #3450, 2,010 places below that high. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hwit mann to Whitman
The story of Whitman
Descriptive bynames were among the first English surnames to fix, and coloring was the commonest thing they described. Whitman is well documented in England from the thirteenth century and reached America with colonial settlement, where a Long Island family of the name produced the poet whose collection went through six editions in his lifetime. Its use as a given name is recent and largely literary.
Meaning
the fair-haired man
From Old English hwit, white, and mann, a person; medieval bynames of this kind described coloring — Whitman, Blackman, Brownman — and had nothing to do with anything else.
How the name formed
- hwit mann
- Whitman
Related forms: Whiteman · Weissmann
Pronouncing Whitman
WIT-man
Two syllables, first stressed. The h is silent for most American speakers.
Nicknames for Whitman
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
- 1909
- Most boys named
- 201839 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1440reached in 1909
- Change vs 2024
- +26.9%33 in 2025, from 26
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.
Whitman in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Whiteman in English — spelling variant
- Weissmann in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Alabama, North Carolina.
Whitmans among us
people named Whitman are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 51,760 born in 2025 was named Whitman
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Whitman 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
Where Whitman is headed
Whitman should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Whitman beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Whitman in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled and completely transparent meaning.
- Whit is a short, distinctive form that carries into adult life.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- The poet is the first association for most educated Americans, which is a large shadow.
- The literal meaning is about race and coloring, which reads differently now than it did in 1250.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
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What they receive
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Whitman
Masculine · #3450 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Whitmans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Whitman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Whitman in 2025?
- Whitman ranks #3450 among US boy names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Whitman?
- About 1 in every 51,760 US boys born in 2025 was named Whitman — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Whitman with classmates?
- Whitman will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Whitman
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sabastian#3450 · Luc#3450 · Deshaun#3450 · Trayvon#3450 · Blade#3450 · Oz#3450 · Josiyah#3450 · Fausto#3450
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Whitman? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Whitman and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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