Arye
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "lion of God" or "lion".
Name Census estimates that about 415 living Americans carry the first name Arye. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Arye today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arye births was 2018 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arye. 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 Arye with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
415
~ 1 in 825,914 Americans
Peak year
2018
23 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,193
Tracked since 1961
Census
Arye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 432 people with the first name Arye, which placed it at #22,880 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
#22,880
National first-name rank
People counted
432
432 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arye is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Arye 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 Arye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.3% · 360
- Black or African American6.3% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 19
- Two or more races2.5% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 5
Popularity
Arye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arye from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 142 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Arye remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arye 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 Arye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aryes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Arye
The name Arye is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name Aryeh, which means "lion" in Hebrew. This name has its roots in ancient Jewish culture and can be traced back to the Old Testament.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Arye can be found in the Book of Chronicles, which mentions a man named Aryeh who was a leader among the exiles who returned to Judah from Babylon in the 5th century BC. This suggests that the name was already in use during the time of the Babylonian captivity.
In the Middle Ages, the name Arye gained popularity among Ashkenazi Jews, particularly in Eastern Europe. It was a common name among rabbis and scholars, reflecting the strong connection between the name and Jewish tradition.
One notable figure who bore the name Arye was Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg (1695-1785), a renowned Polish-Lithuanian rabbi and author of several influential works on Jewish law and ethics. Another prominent individual was Aryeh Kaplan (1934-1983), an American Orthodox rabbi and scholar who made significant contributions to the study of Jewish mysticism and philosophy.
In the 20th century, the name Arye gained recognition outside of the Jewish community as well. One famous bearer of the name was Arye Vardi (1912-1995), an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset who played a crucial role in the establishment of the state of Israel.
Another notable figure was Arye Gross (born 1950), an American actor and director known for his roles in popular TV shows such as "Ellen" and "Muddling Through." Additionally, Arye Naor (1920-2004) was an Israeli politician and diplomat who served as Israel's ambassador to several countries, including the United States.
While the name Arye has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture, it has transcended its original linguistic and cultural boundaries, becoming a name recognized and used globally, particularly within the Jewish diaspora.
People
Arye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arye as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Arye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 415 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arye 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 825,914 US residents.
Is Arye a common name?
We classify Arye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 422 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arye most popular?
The single biggest year for Arye was 2018, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arye is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 432 people with the name Arye, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,880 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 Arye 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 Arye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arye leans strongly male. 385 people counted with this name were male (90.4%), compared with 41 female bearers (9.6%). 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 Arye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arye is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Arye most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.3% (360 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 Arye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arye a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arye 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 Arye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arye 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 Arye 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 have the name Arye?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Arye, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.