as a First Name
Mainly North American: transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from any of various places in England named with the Middle English phrase atten whiten ey ‘by the white island’. In the 1980s its popularity as a girl's name was enhanced by the fame of the American singer Whitney Houston (b. 1963).
| 559th in the U.S. for 2011 |
Nicknames & variations
Quick facts
- Tens of Thousands
- of people in the U.S have this name
- 88,224
- to be exact (as of February 2011)
- 93,246
- if you include dead people (since the government started keeping track)
- Utah
- has the most people named Whitney per capita
- 1986
- marked the height of its popularity
98%
2%
0.39%
55+
55+
11%
30-54
30-54
70%
13-29
13-29
19%
0-12
0-12
Top state populations
U.S. Distribution Map
