Whitney

88,892 people in America carry this name — ranked #598 of 923.

Carried mostly by the Millennials.

Say it WIHT nee

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

W IH1 T N IY0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 88,892 2020 Census
  • Rank #598 Familiar
  • Per 100,000 29.4 about 1 in 3,729 people

The meaning and origin of Whitney

Saxon in origin, reading literally as “of Whitey”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Whitney through the years

102,343 babies were given this name since 1884. The busiest year was 1986, with 9,781 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80s 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1980s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Whitney

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Going quiet

Whitney has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Millennials.

Boys or girls: who is called Whitney?

3.8% men
85,495 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Names with the same rhythm as Whitney

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The states where Whitney is most common

In Utah the name is given 3.0 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Utah ×3.0
  • Kentucky ×2.8
  • Arkansas ×2.7
  • Idaho ×2.2
  • Tennessee ×2.2

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Full names people carry

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Try it Adult Height

Open Adult Height on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers