Verner
A masculine name of German origin meaning "protector" or "guarder".
Name Census estimates that about 422 living Americans carry the first name Verner. It is a predominantly male name (92.0% of registrations). The average person named Verner today is around 75 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Verner births was 1917 (79 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Verner. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Verner is about 75 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Verners were born before 1961.
People living today
422
~ 1 in 812,214 Americans
Peak year
1917
79 babies that year
Average age
75
years old
2000 SSA rank
#6,356
Tracked since 1881
Census
Verner in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 567 people with the first name Verner, which placed it at #18,871 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
#18,871
National first-name rank
People counted
567
567 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Verner
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Verner is White at 69.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.6%) and Hispanic (5.5%). 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 Verner 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 Verner at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.8% · 396
- Black or African American20.6% · 117
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 31
- Two or more races2.1% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Verner
Verner leans heavily male at 92.0% of total registrations, but 171 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Verner as a male name
- Ranked #12,047 in 2000
- 5 male births in 2000
- Peak: 1917 (70 births)
Verner as a female name
- Ranked #6,356 in 1952
- 5 female births in 1952
- Peak: 1922 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Verner leans strongly male. 527 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 43 female bearers (7.5%).
Popularity
Verner: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Verner from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 574 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Verner 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 Verner during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Verners live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Minnesota, Illinois, Georgia recorded the most babies named Verner, while Tennessee, Ohio, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Verner
The name Verner originates from the Germanic languages and is derived from the Old High German word "werinhari," which means "protector of truth." It has been in use since the Middle Ages and was particularly popular in areas of present-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
The earliest known record of the name Verner dates back to the 9th century, where it appears in the Codex Sangallensis, a manuscript from the Abbey of St. Gall in modern-day Switzerland. This early mention suggests that the name was already in use among Germanic-speaking communities during the Carolingian era.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Verner was Verner of Bamberg, a 12th-century Benedictine monk and scholar who authored several works on theology and philosophy. Another prominent figure was Verner von Heideck, a 13th-century German knight and military commander who participated in the Crusades.
In the 15th century, Verner Helmersen was a Norwegian explorer and navigator who is credited with discovering the island of Jan Mayen in the Arctic Ocean. Around the same time, Verner Knudsen, a Danish merchant and shipowner, played a significant role in establishing trade routes between Denmark and other European nations.
During the Renaissance period, Verner Soler was a Spanish painter and engraver known for his contributions to the Mannerist style. He lived from circa 1515 to 1580 and was active in several cities across Spain and Italy.
In more recent centuries, Verner Panton was a Danish designer and architect who gained international recognition for his innovative furniture designs and pioneering use of plastic materials in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in 1926 and passed away in 1998.
People
Verner + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Verner 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
Verner: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Verner?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 422 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Verner 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 812,214 US residents.
Is Verner a common name?
We classify Verner as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,134 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Verner most popular?
The single biggest year for Verner was 1917, when 79 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Verner is about 75 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Verner in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 567 people with the name Verner, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,871 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 Verner 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 Verner?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Verner leans strongly male. 527 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 43 female bearers (7.5%). 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 Verner?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Verner is White at 69.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.6%) and Hispanic (5.5%). 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 Verner most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Verner in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.8% (396 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 Verner in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Verner a male name?
Yes, 92.0% of people registered as Verner 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 Verner still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Verner 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 Verner 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 Americans are named Verner?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.