Averill
An English derivative of the French surname meaning "hazelnut tree place".
Name Census estimates that about 174 living Americans carry the first name Averill. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 67.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Averill today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Averill births was 1987 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Averill. 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
174
~ 1 in 1,969,853 Americans
Peak year
1987
13 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2014 SSA rank
#12,283
Tracked since 1912
Census
Averill in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 401 people with the first name Averill, which placed it at #24,134 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
#24,134
National first-name rank
People counted
401
401 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Averill
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Averill is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (27.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%). 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 Averill 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 Averill at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.4% · 222
- Black or African American27.2% · 109
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 19
- Two or more races4.7% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.0% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Averill
Averill is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 338 total registrations, 228 (67.5%) were male and 110 (32.5%) were female.
Averill as a male name
- Ranked #12,283 in 2014
- 5 male births in 2014
- Peak: 1987 (13 births)
Averill as a female name
- Ranked #13,205 in 2005
- 7 female births in 2005
- Peak: 1926 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Averill on both sides of the split. Of the 403 people counted with this name, 216 were male (53.6%) and 187 were female (46.4%).
Popularity
Averill: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Averill from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 67 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Averill 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 Averill during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Averill
The given name Averill is an English name derived from the ancient French surname Averil, which in turn originated from the Latin name Aprilis, meaning "April". The name is believed to have been bestowed upon children born in the month of April during the Middle Ages.
In the late 12th century, the name Averill first appeared in historical records as a surname in England. It was documented in the Pipe Rolls of Buckinghamshire, a series of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer during the reign of King Richard I.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Averill as a first name dates back to the 14th century, when an English nobleman named Averill de Burgh was mentioned in the Chronicles of Froissart, a collection of historical narratives written by the famous French chronicler Jean Froissart.
In the 16th century, the name Averill gained popularity among Puritan families in England, who often chose names with biblical or nature-related meanings. During this period, Averill Clements (1558-1623), an English Puritan minister and author, was a notable figure who bore this name.
In the 17th century, Averill Armour (1630-1701), a Scottish Covenanter and Presbyterian minister, became a prominent figure during the Scottish Reformation. He was known for his unwavering opposition to the religious policies of the Stuart monarchs.
In the 19th century, Averill Harriman (1891-1986), an American businessman, diplomat, and politician, was a notable figure who carried the name. He served as the 48th Governor of New York and played a crucial role in the Marshall Plan, which aided in the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
Another famous bearer of the name was Averill Broughton (1907-1992), an American actress and singer who appeared in numerous Broadway productions and Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.
While the name Averill was more commonly used as a surname in earlier times, it has gained popularity as a given name, particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries, in recent centuries.
People
Averill + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Averill 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
Averill: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Averill?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 174 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Averill 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 1,969,853 US residents.
Is Averill a common name?
We classify Averill as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 338 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Averill most popular?
The single biggest year for Averill was 1987, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Averill is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Averill in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 401 people with the name Averill, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,134 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 Averill 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 Averill?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Averill on both sides of the split. Of the 403 people counted with this name, 216 were male (53.6%) and 187 were female (46.4%). 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 Averill?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Averill is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (27.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%). 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 Averill most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Averill in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.4% (222 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 Averill in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Averill a male name?
Yes, 67.5% of people registered as Averill 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 Averill still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Averill 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 Averill 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 Averill?
See how many people share the name Averill on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.