Rayven
A variant spelling of Raven meaning dark or blackbird.
Name Census estimates that about 3,071 living Americans carry the first name Rayven. It is a predominantly female name (94.6% of registrations). The average person named Rayven today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rayven births was 1998 (139 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rayven. 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 Rayven with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.1K
~ 1 in 111,610 Americans
Peak year
1998
139 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,999
Tracked since 1979
Census
Rayven in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,286 people with the first name Rayven, which placed it at #6,871 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
#6,871
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,286 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
48.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rayven
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rayven is Black at 48.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.6%) and Two or More Races (9.6%). 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 Rayven 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 Rayven at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American48.5% · 1,109
- White28.6% · 654
- Two or more races9.6% · 219
- Hispanic or Latino9.1% · 209
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 52
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 43
Gender
Gender distribution for Rayven
Rayven leans heavily female at 94.6% of total registrations, but 170 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rayven as a male name
- Ranked #11,984 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (17 births)
Rayven as a female name
- Ranked #2,999 in 2024
- 55 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (130 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rayven leans strongly female. 2,114 people counted with this name were female (92.6%), compared with 170 male bearers (7.4%).
Popularity
Rayven: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rayven from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,097 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rayven 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 Rayven during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rayvens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. Texas, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Rayven, while Oklahoma, District of Columbia, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 54 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rayven
The name Rayven is a modern English variant of the name Raven, which has its origins in the Old English word "ræfn," meaning "raven." The raven is a large black bird that has long been associated with mystery, intelligence, and even magic in various cultures.
The raven has played a significant role in folklore and mythology across different civilizations. In ancient Norse mythology, the raven was considered a sacred bird and was associated with the god Odin. Two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, were believed to be Odin's messengers, flying around the world and bringing him information.
In some Native American cultures, the raven was revered as a trickster figure, a shape-shifter, and a symbol of transformation. The Tlingit and Haida tribes of the Pacific Northwest coast have many stories and legends featuring the raven as a central character.
The earliest recorded use of the name Raven as a personal name dates back to the 16th century in England. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Raven Vaughan, a Welsh poet and scholar who lived in the late 16th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Raven or its variants. One of the most famous is the American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), whose poem "The Raven" is widely regarded as a literary masterpiece.
Another notable individual was Raven Wilkinson (1935-2018), an African American ballet dancer who broke racial barriers in the 1950s and 1960s. She was one of the first African American members of a major ballet company in the United States.
In the world of music, Raven-Symoné (born 1985) is an American actress, singer, and television personality who rose to fame as a child star on the sitcom "The Cosby Show" and later starred in the Disney Channel series "That's So Raven."
The name Rayven, with its unique spelling, emerged as a variant in the late 20th century. One notable individual with this name is Rayven Choi (born 1985), an American model and television personality who appeared in the reality show "America's Next Top Model."
Another individual with the name Rayven is Rayven Symone Ferrell (born 1985), an American professional wrestler better known by her ring name Rayven Terrell. She has competed in various independent promotions and was a former NWA World Women's Champion.
While the name Rayven is a modern variant, it carries the rich cultural and mythological symbolism associated with the raven, a bird that has captivated human imagination for centuries.
People
Rayven + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rayven as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rayven: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rayven?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,071 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rayven 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 111,610 US residents.
Is Rayven a common name?
We classify Rayven as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,126 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rayven most popular?
The single biggest year for Rayven was 1998, when 139 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rayven is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rayven in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,286 people with the name Rayven, or 0.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,871 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 Rayven 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 Rayven?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rayven leans strongly female. 2,114 people counted with this name were female (92.6%), compared with 170 male bearers (7.4%). 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 Rayven?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rayven is Black at 48.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.6%) and Two or More Races (9.6%). 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 Rayven most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rayven in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.5% (1,109 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 Rayven in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rayven a female name?
Yes, 94.6% of people registered as Rayven 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 Rayven still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rayven 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 Rayven 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 common is the name Rayven?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Rayven at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.