Ave
A feminine Latin name meaning "hail" or "farewell".
Name Census estimates that about 758 living Americans carry the first name Ave. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ave today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ave births was 2007 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ave. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
758
~ 1 in 452,183 Americans
Peak year
2007
31 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,400
Tracked since 1913
Census
Ave in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,269 people with the first name Ave, which placed it at #10,480 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,480
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,269 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ave
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ave is White at 49.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.7%) and Hispanic (14.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ave described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ave at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.8% · 632
- Black or African American20.7% · 263
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 179
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.8% · 99
- Two or more races6.7% · 85
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 11
Popularity
Ave: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ave from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 188 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ave remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ave by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ave during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aves live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia recorded the most babies named Ave, while Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ave
The name Ave is derived from the Latin word "ave" which means "hail" or "farewell". It has been used as a given name since ancient Roman times.
Ave is a feminine given name that was popular in ancient Rome. It was often used as a greeting or salutation, similar to the modern "hello" or "goodbye". The name is believed to have originated from the Latin phrase "ave atque vale" which means "hail and farewell".
In Roman mythology, Ave was also the name of a minor goddess associated with youth and springtime renewal. She was sometimes depicted as a young, vibrant woman surrounded by flowers and greenery.
One of the earliest known references to the name Ave comes from the Roman poet Ovid, who lived from 43 BC to 17 AD. In his work Ars Amatoria, he mentions a character named Ave.
In the early Christian era, the name Ave gained additional significance due to its connection to the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel greeted the Virgin Mary with the words "Ave Maria" meaning "Hail Mary". This biblical reference helped to popularize the name among Christians.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Ave. One of the earliest was Ave of Auxerre, a 6th-century Frankish abbess and saint who founded a convent in Auxerre, France.
Another prominent Ave was Ave of Anagni, an Italian noblewoman who lived in the 12th century. She was known for her piety and charitable works, and was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
In the world of literature, Ave Ralston was an American poet and writer who lived from 1877 to 1935. She was known for her nature poetry and her works celebrating the beauty of the American Southwest.
In the field of music, Ave Ventura was a Mexican-American singer and actress who rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in several Spanish-language films and recorded numerous popular songs.
Finally, Ave Naude was a South African sculptor and artist who lived from 1936 to 2005. She was renowned for her abstract and figurative works, and her sculptures can be found in public spaces and museums throughout South Africa.
People
Ave + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ave as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ave: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ave?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 758 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ave going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 452,183 US residents.
Is Ave a common name?
We classify Ave as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 929 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ave most popular?
The single biggest year for Ave was 2007, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ave is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ave in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,269 people with the name Ave, or 0.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,480 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ave in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ave?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ave leans strongly female. 1,150 people counted with this name were female (91.0%), compared with 114 male bearers (9.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ave?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ave is White at 49.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.7%) and Hispanic (14.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ave most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ave in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.8% (632 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ave in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ave a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ave in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ave still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ave in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ave can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Ave as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.