Valdez
A Spanish masculine name derived from the word "valle", meaning "valley".
Name Census estimates that about 242 living Americans carry the first name Valdez. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Valdez today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Valdez births was 1974 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Valdez. 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
242
~ 1 in 1,416,340 Americans
Peak year
1974
21 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2013 SSA rank
#13,934
Tracked since 1957
Census
Valdez in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 374 people with the first name Valdez, which placed it at #25,370 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
#25,370
National first-name rank
People counted
374
374 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
60.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Valdez
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Valdez is Black at 60.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.0%) and White (4.5%). 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 Valdez 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 Valdez at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American60.7% · 227
- Hispanic or Latino27.0% · 101
- White4.5% · 17
- Two or more races3.5% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 6
Popularity
Valdez: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Valdez from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 107 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Valdez 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 Valdez during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Valdez' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Valdez
The name Valdez finds its origins in the Spanish language and culture, with roots dating back to the medieval period. It is believed to be derived from the Spanish surname Valdés, which itself comes from the phrase "valle de Dios," meaning "valley of God."
This name was particularly prevalent in the regions of Asturias and León in northern Spain during the 8th to 12th centuries. Early records show variations in spelling, such as Valdés, Valdés, and Valdes, reflecting the evolution of the name over time.
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Valdez can be found in the "Codex Calixtinus," a 12th-century manuscript that documented the lives of pilgrims traveling the Camino de Santiago. This suggests that individuals bearing the name may have been among the early pilgrims on this famous religious route.
The first recorded use of the name Valdez as a given name dates back to the 13th century, when a nobleman named Valdez Díaz de Villamayor was mentioned in a chronicle from the Kingdom of León. Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the name remained relatively uncommon but was associated with noble and wealthy families in Spain.
One notable figure in history who bore the name Valdez was Pedro de Valdez (1510-1568), a Spanish explorer and conquistador who played a role in the early colonization of the Americas. He served as the first governor of the Spanish colony of Buenos Aires in present-day Argentina.
Another prominent individual was Juan de Valdez (1509-1541), a Spanish theologian and religious reformer who was closely associated with the Protestant Reformation movement in Europe. Despite facing persecution for his beliefs, his writings and ideas had a lasting impact on Christian theology.
In the realm of literature, Valdez Leal (1622-1690) was a celebrated Spanish painter and etcher from Córdoba, renowned for his dramatic religious scenes and vanitas still-life paintings that explored the theme of mortality.
Closer to modern times, Valdez Butler (1842-1925) was an American soldier and politician who served as a Union Army officer during the American Civil War and later became a prominent figure in the Republican Party in Missouri.
Lastly, Valdez Boulting (1920-2008) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who made significant contributions to the development of modern dance in the United Kingdom during the mid-20th century.
People
Valdez + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Valdez as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Valdez: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Valdez?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 242 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Valdez 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 1,416,340 US residents.
Is Valdez a common name?
We classify Valdez as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 258 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Valdez most popular?
The single biggest year for Valdez was 1974, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Valdez is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Valdez in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 374 people with the name Valdez, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,370 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 Valdez 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 Valdez?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Valdez leans strongly male. 309 people counted with this name were male (82.2%), compared with 67 female bearers (17.8%). 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 Valdez?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Valdez is Black at 60.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.0%) and White (4.5%). 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 Valdez most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Valdez in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.7% (227 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 Valdez in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Valdez a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Valdez 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 Valdez still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Valdez 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 Valdez 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 Valdez?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.