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Hayward

#12,703 in 2025Boys' name

English word name: hayward

Hayward has been given to 5,064 babies in the U.S. since 1884. In 2025 it ranked #12,703 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1956, with 95 recorded.

Babies named Hayward, 2025

1 in 663,000

Hayward over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Hayward: meaning, origin, and history

English word name: hayward

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Hayward means

Hayward takes the English word hayward into personal-name use.

Origin, language, and formation

Hayward is used in English.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Hayward is pronounced /ˈheɪwə(ɹ)d/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,064 boys were recorded with the name Hayward between 1884 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 95 in 1956; its best national rank was #633 in 1903.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #11,102 in 2020 to #12,703 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #7,237 in 2015 to #12,703 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Hayward?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#12,703
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Hayward sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Hayward. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Haywards were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Hayward was born before 1943 — so the typical Hayward is around 82 today.

Median birth year
1943
About 82 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
16.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.5%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,002
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 16.1% of all recorded uses (814).

Is Hayward rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,278
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,601
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−5,466
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.45×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
5.3%
Peak was 1956 (95)
Years since peak
69
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#633
1903

Spellings of Hayward

Hayward is not the most common spelling — Howard is, with 91.3% against Hayward's 1.3%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Hayward is used

Across 1910–2025, Hayward was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 7,143 boys, against 1 in 49,252 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

014 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 7,143
  2. 2South Carolina1 in 7,143
  3. 3West Virginia1 in 7,143
  4. 4Alabama1 in 11,111
  5. 5Georgia1 in 12,500
  6. 6Florida1 in 33,333
  7. 7Mississippi1 in 33,333
  8. 8Arkansas1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Hayward has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Hayward around the world

Where Hayward ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1946–1989
    #478
    in 1989

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Hayward

People whose public names include Hayward, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Hayward by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#12,703
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,601
Best rank ever
#633
1903
Peak year
1956
95 that year
First recorded
1884
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,064
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Hayward

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

HaywoodShepardRashardKennardHaydonMaynardMillardHaydnHaythamLenardBallardDillardHaynesHayesEduardRaynardDurwardHaydinGerhardHillardEdgardGerrardHarvardVernard

Names with a curve like Hayward

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Hayward, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ReynoldMeltonSherwoodWaymonRayfordAlvisBoyceLawerenceCarletonRegisAlfordFelton

Sibling names for Hayward

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Hayward

Top names of 1956, Hayward's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1903Boys' names starting with H