Chevy
A masculine diminutive form of the French surname Chauvin, derived from "chaufe" meaning barefoot peasant.
Name Census estimates that about 4,481 living Americans carry the first name Chevy. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Chevy today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chevy births was 2014 (282 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chevy. 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 Chevy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Chevy is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.5K
~ 1 in 76,491 Americans
Peak year
2014
282 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,660
Tracked since 1976
Census
Chevy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,384 people with the first name Chevy, which placed it at #5,161 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
#5,161
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,384 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chevy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chevy is White at 77.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Chevy 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 Chevy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.7% · 2,630
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 258
- Two or more races5.9% · 199
- Black or African American4.4% · 148
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 83
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 66
Gender
Gender distribution for Chevy
Chevy leans heavily male at 81.0% of total registrations, but 860 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Chevy as a male name
- Ranked #1,660 in 2024
- 101 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (237 births)
Chevy as a female name
- Ranked #5,462 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (62 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Chevy on both sides of the split. Of the 3,384 people counted with this name, 2,663 were male (78.7%) and 721 were female (21.3%).
Popularity
Chevy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chevy from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,173 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Chevy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chevy 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 Chevy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chevys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Chevy, while West Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 66 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Chevy
The given name Chevy is a modern invention, having no roots in ancient languages or cultures. It is believed to have been derived from the Chevrolet motor company, which was founded in 1911 by Swiss-American racing driver Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant. The name Chevrolet itself is a French surname, likely derived from the town of Chevreaux in eastern France.
There are no known historical references or ancient texts mentioning the name Chevy, as it is a relatively recent coinage. The earliest recorded examples of the name being used as a first name are from the mid-20th century, likely inspired by the popularity of the Chevrolet brand and its association with American car culture.
While not an ancient name, there have been a few notable individuals throughout history who have borne the first name Chevy. One example is Chevy Chase, an American actor and comedian born Cornelius Crane Chase in 1943. Another is Chevy Tru, a German-American musician and guitarist born Chevy Tru Kleinschmidt in 1959.
In the world of sports, there is Chevy Torres, a Mexican professional baseball player born Javier Torres in 1983. The name has also been used in the literary world, with Chevy Stevens being the pen name of American author Rene Denfeld, born in 1965.
Finally, Chevy Trillville is the stage name of American rapper James Richard Wilson III, born in 1981. While not a traditional name with deep historical roots, Chevy has gained some prominence in modern times, particularly in American popular culture.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Chevy
People
Chevy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chevy as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Chevy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chevy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,481 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chevy 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 76,491 US residents.
Is Chevy a common name?
We classify Chevy as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,538 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chevy most popular?
The single biggest year for Chevy was 2014, when 282 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chevy is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chevy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,384 people with the name Chevy, or 1.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,161 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 Chevy 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 Chevy?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Chevy on both sides of the split. Of the 3,384 people counted with this name, 2,663 were male (78.7%) and 721 were female (21.3%). 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 Chevy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chevy is White at 77.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Chevy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Chevy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.7% (2,630 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 Chevy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chevy a male name?
Yes, 81.0% of people registered as Chevy 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 Chevy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chevy 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 Chevy 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 are called Chevy?
You can see how many Americans are named Chevy on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.