Valery
A feminine name of French origin meaning "strength, valour".
Name Census estimates that about 8,075 living Americans carry the first name Valery. It is a predominantly female name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Valery today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Valery births was 2006 (395 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Valery. 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 Valery with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Valery is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 102 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
8.1K
~ 1 in 42,446 Americans
Peak year
2006
395 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#787
Tracked since 1914
Census
Valery in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,339 people with the first name Valery, which placed it at #2,787 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
#2,787
National first-name rank
People counted
8.3K
8,339 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
55.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Valery
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Valery is Hispanic at 55.8%. The next largest groups are White (31.8%) and Black (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 Valery 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 Valery at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino55.8% · 4,656
- White31.8% · 2,648
- Black or African American9.6% · 804
- Two or more races1.2% · 103
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 97
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Valery
Valery leans heavily female at 98.8% of total registrations, but 102 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Valery as a male name
- Ranked #14,062 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1977 (8 births)
Valery as a female name
- Ranked #787 in 2024
- 358 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (395 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Valery leans strongly female. 6,877 people counted with this name were female (82.5%), compared with 1,461 male bearers (17.5%).
Popularity
Valery: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Valery from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,354 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Valery remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Valery 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 Valery during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Valerys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Valery, while Rhode Island, Minnesota, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 190 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Valery
The name Valery has its roots in the Latin name Valerius, which was derived from the word "valere" meaning "to be strong" or "to be well." It is a masculine name that has been in use since ancient Roman times.
During the Roman era, the name Valerius was borne by several notable individuals, including the Roman emperor Valerius Messalla Corvinus, who lived from 64 BC to 8 AD. Another famous bearer of the name was the Roman poet and satirist Valerius Martial, who lived from 38/41 AD to 102/104 AD and is known for his witty and often biting epigrams.
As the Roman Empire expanded, the name Valerius and its variants spread across Europe. In the Middle Ages, the name took on various forms in different regions, such as Valery in France and Valeri in Italy.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Valery was Saint Valery, a 7th-century Frankish abbot and missionary who founded the Monastery of Leuconaus in northern France. His life and work were documented in the 9th-century hagiography "Vita Sancti Valerii."
Another notable figure named Valery was Valery the Great, a Byzantine philosopher and mystic who lived in the 6th century AD. He is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is remembered for his contributions to the development of hesychasm, a spiritual tradition focused on inner stillness and prayer.
In the 19th century, the name Valery gained literary prominence through the French poet and essayist Paul Valéry, who lived from 1871 to 1945. Known for his philosophical and introspective works, he is considered one of the most influential figures in modern French literature.
The Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who lived from 1840 to 1893, had a brother named Valery. Valery Tchaikovsky was also a musician and served as the director of the Moscow Conservatory.
Another notable bearer of the name was Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former President of France who served from 1974 to 1981. He played a significant role in the European integration process and is remembered for his economic and social reforms.
People
Valery + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Valery 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
Valery: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Valery?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,075 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Valery 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 42,446 US residents.
Is Valery a common name?
We classify Valery as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,559 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Valery most popular?
The single biggest year for Valery was 2006, when 395 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Valery 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 Valery in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,339 people with the name Valery, or 2.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,787 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 Valery 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 Valery?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Valery leans strongly female. 6,877 people counted with this name were female (82.5%), compared with 1,461 male bearers (17.5%). 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 Valery?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Valery is Hispanic at 55.8%. The next largest groups are White (31.8%) and Black (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 Valery most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Valery in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.8% (4,656 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 Valery in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Valery a female name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Valery 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 Valery still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Valery 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 Valery 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 Valery?
Find out how many people share the name Valery on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.