Yates
Masculine · “of the gates”
Yates means the gates, and it identified someone who lived by them — a gatekeeper, or a family whose house stood at the entrance to a town or an estate. It is one of the plainest English surnames there is, and its use as an American given name peaks in 1923.
How old is the name Yates?
Yates first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Yates alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 300 people named Yates are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yates most popular?
Yates peaked in 1923, reaching #2020 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 4,123 places below that high. See the whole 1923 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From geat to Yates
The story of Yates
Gates mattered in medieval towns: they controlled entry, collected tolls and closed at night, and the person who kept one had a real position. Surnames formed from them are common across England, in the forms Yates, Yeats, Gates and Gate. The Yates family name is particularly associated with the Midlands and the north. It crossed to America in numbers and its promotion to a given name follows the ordinary surname pattern, peaking in the 1920s alongside Wilton, Thayer and Caldwell. Bill Gates carries the same word by a different spelling.
Meaning
of the gates; a gatekeeper
Old English geat means a gate or an opening, and gives modern English gate; the plural and the possessive both produce Yates and Yeats. A person surnamed Yates lived by a town gate or kept one. It is a topographical and occupational surname at once, and the derivation is entirely settled. The Irish poet W. B. Yeats spelled it differently and pronounced it the same.
How the name formed
- geat
- yates
- Yates
Related forms: Yeats · Gates
Pronouncing Yates
YAYTS
One syllable, rhyming with gates. Yeats is said the same way, despite the spelling. There is no ambiguity and nobody has to be taught it.
Nicknames for Yates
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 192316 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2020reached in 1923
- 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.
Yates in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yeats in English — spelling variant
- Gates in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: North Carolina.
Yatess among us
people named Yates are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Yates
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
Yates 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
Yates beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yates in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and five letters, immediately sayable and spellable.
- The meaning is concrete and transparent to any English speaker.
- The Y initial makes it distinctive in any list.
- It reads strongly as a surname and will be taken for one.
- One-syllable names leave a bearer with no nickname in reserve.
- Its American curve is 1920s, which places a bearer's generation.
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Yates
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yatess are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Yates are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yates in 2025?
- Yates ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yates?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Yates — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yates with classmates?
- Yates will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yates
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Marquan#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yates? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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