Av
A name of Hebrew origin meaning "father" or "ancestor".
Name Census estimates that about 0 living Americans carry the first name Av. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Av today is around 0 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Av births was 1923 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Av. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Av. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
0
~ - Americans
Peak year
1923
5 babies that year
Average age
-
1923 SSA rank
#4,283
Tracked since 1923
Census
Av in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 342 people with the first name Av, which placed it at #26,967 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
#26,967
National first-name rank
People counted
342
342 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Av
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Av is White at 46.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.8%) and Black (16.7%). 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 Av 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 Av at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.2% · 158
- Hispanic or Latino20.8% · 71
- Black or African American16.7% · 57
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.3% · 42
- Two or more races2.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 6
Popularity
Av: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Av 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 Av during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Av
The name Av is of obscure origin, with no clear consensus on its linguistic roots or cultural background. Some scholars have suggested it may derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *au-, meaning "to perceive" or "to see," while others have proposed connections to ancient Semitic languages or even pre-historic cave inscriptions.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding its etymology, the name Av appears to have been in use since ancient times. One of the earliest recorded instances is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian poem dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, where a minor character bears the name Av-ilu. Similarly, the Phoenician inscriptions of Byblos, dating from around the 1st millennium BCE, mention an individual named Av-baal.
In the classical era, the name Av is attested in various Greek and Roman sources, though often as a shortened form of longer names such as Avitus or Avienus. One notable figure from this period is Av-Gabinius, a Roman politician and general who played a significant role in the Roman conquest of Judea in the 1st century BCE.
Moving into the medieval period, the name Av surfaces in various European contexts. The Frankish chronicle known as the Annales Regni Francorum, written in the 9th century CE, mentions an Av-radus who served as a nobleman under the Carolingian dynasty. Similarly, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals from early medieval England, records an Av-ric who was a prominent thegn (noble) in the court of King Canute in the 11th century CE.
The Renaissance and Early Modern periods also saw the occasional appearance of the name Av. The Italian humanist and scholar Av-Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) is perhaps the most well-known figure from this time, renowned for his contributions to philosophy and his role in the Italian Renaissance. Another notable individual was Av-Dürer (1471-1528), a German painter and printmaker who was a leading figure in the Northern Renaissance.
In more recent centuries, the name Av has remained relatively uncommon, though it has continued to surface in various cultural contexts. The Russian writer Av-Turgenev (1818-1883) was a prominent figure in the 19th century literary world, best known for his novels and plays exploring the social and political issues of his time. Similarly, the American artist Av-Hopper (1882-1967) was a celebrated painter and printmaker, renowned for his distinctive depictions of urban life and solitude.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Av, highlighting its enduring, if somewhat enigmatic, presence across various cultures and time periods.
People
Av + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Av 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
Av: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Av?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 0 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Av 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 - US residents.
Is Av a common name?
We classify Av as "Very Rare". It ranks above 2.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Av most popular?
The single biggest year for Av was 1923, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Av is about 0 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Av in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 342 people with the name Av, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,967 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 Av 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 Av?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Av on both sides of the split. Of the 353 people counted with this name, 166 were male (47.0%) and 187 were female (53.0%). 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 Av?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Av is White at 46.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.8%) and Black (16.7%). 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 Av most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Av in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.2% (158 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 Av in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Av a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Av 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 Av still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Av 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 Av 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 called Av?
Want to know how many people share the name Av? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.