Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Payton was most popular in 2008, when 4,852 American babies were given the name — ranking #152 that year. In 2025 it ranked #789, with 810 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 84,784 people named Payton.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Payton is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 121 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 84,784 American births named Payton between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 83,257 are estimated to be alive today.
810 American babies were named Payton in 2025, ranking #789 that year.
Payton is falling. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 1,085 births a year, against 3,171 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of -66% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Payton is a unisex name — 70.8% of the 84,784 Americans given it were girls and 29.2% were boys. It changed hands: since 1992 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that. In births since 2016 it is 87% girls and 13% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 83,257 Americans named Payton are alive today — 98% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 18 years old, and half are between 13 and 24. That is a narrow band: Payton arrived and faded within about a decade rather than staying in steady use.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
A variant of Peyton · Old English · a place name, "Paega's farm"
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Payton on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org