Avner
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "father of light" or "giver of light".
Name Census estimates that about 354 living Americans carry the first name Avner. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Avner today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Avner births was 2015 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Avner. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Avner with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
354
~ 1 in 968,233 Americans
Peak year
2015
27 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,909
Tracked since 1921
Census
Avner in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 575 people with the first name Avner, which placed it at #18,673 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
#18,673
National first-name rank
People counted
575
575 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Avner
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Avner is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.4%). 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 Avner 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 Avner at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.8% · 413
- Hispanic or Latino15.8% · 91
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 31
- Two or more races4.2% · 24
- Black or African American2.6% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Avner: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Avner from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 187 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Avner remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Avner 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 Avner during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Avners live
Origin
Meaning and history of Avner
The name Avner is a Hebrew given name that originated in ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "or," meaning "light," and the prefix "av," meaning "father." Thus, the name Avner can be translated as "father of light" or "father's light."
The name has its roots in the Hebrew Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of one of the sons of Ner, the brother of Kish, the father of King Saul. This reference can be found in the Book of 1 Chronicles 8:33.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Avner was Avner ben Ner, who lived in the 11th century BCE. He was a commander of Saul's army and later became a supporter of David during the conflict between Saul and David. Avner played a crucial role in the events described in the Book of Samuel.
In the Middle Ages, the name Avner was not widely used, but it experienced a revival in the modern era, particularly after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Since then, the name has become popular among Israelis of various backgrounds.
Notable individuals named Avner throughout history include Avner Ziv (1905-1980), an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) for several terms. Another prominent figure was Avner Treinin (1917-1995), an Israeli professor of chemistry and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Avner Inbar (born 1962) is a contemporary Israeli political scientist and the founder of the Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict program at Bar-Ilan University. Avner Panovitz (born 1961) is an Israeli artist known for his multimedia installations and performances.
It is worth mentioning that the name Avner has also been used as a last name, albeit less commonly than as a first name. However, this report focuses solely on the history and usage of Avner as a given name.
People
Avner + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Avner 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
Avner: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Avner?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 354 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Avner 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 968,233 US residents.
Is Avner a common name?
We classify Avner as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 364 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Avner most popular?
The single biggest year for Avner was 2015, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Avner is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Avner in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 575 people with the name Avner, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,673 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 Avner 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 Avner?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Avner appears almost entirely male. Of the 562 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Avner?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Avner is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.4%). 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 Avner most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Avner in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.8% (413 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 Avner in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Avner a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Avner in the SSA data are male. 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 Avner still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Avner 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 Avner 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 Americans are named Avner?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.