How Many People Are Named Bill Foster?
There are approximately 56 people named Bill Foster living in the United States today. That makes this name combination rare, occurring at a rate of about 1 in 6,120,613 Americans.
This estimate combines SSA birth records for the first name Bill with Census Bureau frequency data for the surname Foster. Below you will find a breakdown of both names, including popularity trends, gender data, and Census background data where it is available.
Estimated People with This Name
56
1 in 6,120,613 Americans
Combination Rarity
Rare
First Name
View full profileBill
Last Name
View full profileFoster
Bill: Popularity Over Time
Year-by-year SSA birth registrations for the first name Bill. The peak year was 1947 with 4,688 births. The average person named Bill today is 70 years old.
Ancestry of the First Name Bill
In the 2020 Census, the first name Bill was most commonly recorded among people who identified as White (84.16%). The next largest recorded groups were Asian and Pacific Islander (4.58%) and Black (4.41%).
These percentages describe the people who had the first name Bill in the 2020 Census. They do not tell you the deeper origin or meaning of the name itself.
Read this as a snapshot of who already had the name in 2020, not as a trend line. The SSA chart above is still the better way to see how Bill rose or fell over time.
Ancestry of the Foster Surname
The surname Foster was most commonly recorded among people who identified as White in the 2020 Census.
This is a self-reported race and ethnicity breakdown for people who had the surname Foster in the published Census surname tables. It gives useful context around who was recorded with the name, but it does not tell the full family history of every Boone line.
How we calculated this
The first name "Bill" has an estimated frequency of 0.0222% among living Americans, based on SSA birth records from 1880 to 2024 adjusted for mortality using CDC 2023 life tables.
The surname "Foster" appears at a rate of 73.21 per 100,000 people in the 2020 U.S. Census.
We do not use the Census first-name snapshot for the main estimate because it is only published once every 10 years. The latest public first-name Census file is from 2020, which is already 6 years old. SSA birth records plus CDC survival data give a better current estimate of how many people with the first name Bill are likely to be alive now.
Multiplying these frequencies against the U.S. population of ~343 million gives 56 estimated people. This assumes first names and last names are statistically independent. Full methodology.
Other people named Bill
Other people with the surname Foster
Bill Foster: Questions and Answers
How many people are named Bill Foster?
We estimate approximately 56 people named Bill Foster are alive in the United States today. The first name Bill is shared by 76,202 Americans, and the surname Foster is shared by 250,931.
How rare is the name Bill Foster?
This name combination is classified as Rare, occurring at a rate of about 1 in 6,120,613 Americans. The first name Bill is uncommon and the surname Foster is common.
Is Bill a male or female name?
Bill is predominantly male, with 99.6% of bearers being male and 0.4% female. It peaked in popularity in 1947 and the average bearer today is 70 years old.
What does the Census say about the first name Bill?
In the 2020 Census, the first name Bill was most commonly recorded among people who identified as White (84.16%). The next largest recorded groups were Asian and Pacific Islander (4.58%) and Black (4.41%). These percentages describe the people who had the name in the 2020 Census, not the deeper origin of the name itself.
Where does this data come from?
First name data comes from the Social Security Administration (1880 to 2024), adjusted for survival using CDC 2023 life tables. When available, first-name Census background data comes from the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau first-name tables. Surname data comes from the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau. Full methodology.
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