Try (not tested)

SELECT DISTINCT mt1.name, 
		(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM 
			(SELECT TOP 5 * FROM maytable mt2 WHERE mt2.name = mt1.name) dt2 
				WHERE dt2.status = 'somestatus')
	FROM maytable mt1

>Having a table:
> name, status, date
>
>How can I get the count of a particular status from the most recent 5 entries (date) for each name? This needs to be a single SQL statement that is passed to SQL Server.