Genevieve
A feminine name of French origin meaning "white wave" or "white path".
Name Census estimates that about 53,277 living Americans carry the first name Genevieve. It sits at #165 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Genevieve today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Genevieve births was 1918 (3,313 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Genevieve. 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 Genevieve with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Genevieve is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 151 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
53K
~ 1 in 6,433 Americans
Peak year
1918
3,313 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2016 SSA rank
#165
Tracked since 1880
Census
Genevieve in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 51,139 people with the first name Genevieve, which placed it at #884 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
#884
National first-name rank
People counted
51K
51,139 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Genevieve
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Genevieve is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Genevieve 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 Genevieve at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.9% · 36,282
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 7,215
- Black or African American5.1% · 2,615
- Two or more races4.9% · 2,522
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 1,973
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 532
Gender
Gender distribution for Genevieve
Out of the 123,270 babies given the name Genevieve since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Genevieve as a male name
- Ranked #11,182 in 2016
- 6 male births in 2016
- Peak: 1924 (10 births)
Genevieve as a female name
- Ranked #165 in 2024
- 1,835 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (3,304 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Genevieve appears almost entirely female. Of the 51,136 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Genevieve: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Genevieve from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 24,849 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Genevieve remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Genevieve 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 Genevieve during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Genevieves live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Genevieve, while Delaware, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,152 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Genevieve
The name Genevieve originated from the medieval French Geneviève, which is derived from the Germanic Gewinniva. The name is composed of the elements gewin, meaning "woman" or "wife", and sibb, meaning "akin" or "peace". It is a feminine form of the masculine name Gewin.
Genevieve gained popularity as a Christian name due to the influence of St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, who lived in the 5th century. According to legend, she played a crucial role in encouraging the Parisians to resist the Huns led by Attila during their siege of the city in 451 AD.
The earliest recorded use of the name Genevieve dates back to the 6th century. In the Middle Ages, it was a popular name among the French nobility and royalty. One notable bearer was Genevieve of Brabant, a 7th-century Belgian princess who became a popular subject of medieval legends and folklore.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Genevieve. Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz (1920-2002) was a French Resistance fighter during World War II and a prominent human rights activist. Genevieve Ward (1837-1922) was an American actress and playwright known for her performances in Shakespearean roles.
Genevieve Nnaji (born 1979) is a Nigerian actress, producer, and director, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the Nigerian entertainment industry. Genevieve Bujold (born 1942) is a Canadian actress known for her roles in films such as Anne of the Thousand Days and Coma.
Genevieve Habert (1910-1996) was a French mathematician and computer scientist, notable for her contributions to the development of early programming languages and the design of the LACARI programming system. She was a pioneer in the field of computer science and one of the first women to make significant contributions to the discipline.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Genevieve
People
Genevieve + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Genevieve as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Genevieve: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Genevieve?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 53,277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Genevieve 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 6,433 US residents.
Is Genevieve a common name?
We classify Genevieve as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 123,270 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Genevieve most popular?
The single biggest year for Genevieve was 1918, when 3,313 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Genevieve is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Genevieve in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 51,139 people with the name Genevieve, or 16.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #884 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 Genevieve 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 Genevieve?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Genevieve appears almost entirely female. Of the 51,136 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Genevieve?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Genevieve is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Genevieve most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Genevieve in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.9% (36,282 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 Genevieve in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Genevieve a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Genevieve 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 Genevieve still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Genevieve 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 Genevieve 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 named Genevieve?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.