Celvin
Celvin is a variant spelling of Calvin, a masculine given name of English origin meaning "bald, little".
Name Census estimates that about 109 living Americans carry the first name Celvin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Celvin today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Celvin births was 2003 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Celvin. 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 Celvin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
109
~ 1 in 3,144,535 Americans
Peak year
2003
10 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2017 SSA rank
#11,012
Tracked since 1993
Census
Celvin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 386 people with the first name Celvin, which placed it at #24,794 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
#24,794
National first-name rank
People counted
386
386 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
73.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Celvin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Celvin is Hispanic at 73.3%. The next largest groups are Black (14.5%) and White (6.2%). 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 Celvin 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 Celvin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino73.3% · 283
- Black or African American14.5% · 56
- White6.2% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 6
- Two or more races0.8% · 3
Popularity
Celvin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Celvin from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 70 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Celvin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Celvin 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 Celvin 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 Celvin
The name Celvin has its origins in the ancient Celtic languages spoken across Europe during the Iron Age and medieval periods. Derived from the Proto-Celtic root *kel-wos, meaning "high" or "prominent," it likely began as a descriptive name or epithet to denote someone of elevated status or stature within their community.
In its earliest attested forms, the name appeared as Celvinus or Celvius in inscriptions and records from Gallo-Roman settlements in what is now modern-day France and Belgium. One notable example is Celvius Taurus, a Gallic chieftain who led uprisings against Roman rule in the 1st century BCE.
As the Celtic peoples migrated and intermingled with other cultures, the name spread and evolved, taking on various spellings and forms. In Britain, it emerged as Celfin or Celwyn, found in medieval Welsh chronicles and genealogies. Celfin ap Rhys, a 12th-century Welsh prince, was one influential bearer of this version.
The spelling Celvin itself seems to have arisen in regions where Celtic and Germanic languages intersected, possibly influenced by the Old Norse word "kelfr" meaning "calf" or "young deer." Celvin Olafsson, a 9th-century Norse settler in Iceland, is among the earliest recorded individuals with this exact spelling.
Other notable figures throughout history who bore the name Celvin include:
1. Celvin of Auxerre (c. 840 - 923), a Frankish scholar and theologian renowned for his biblical commentaries.
2. Celvin MacAlpin (c. 1050 - 1124), a Scottish nobleman and military leader during the reign of King David I.
3. Celvin de Montfort (c. 1180 - 1253), a French crusader and knight who participated in the Albigensian Crusade.
4. Celvin Vaughan (1565 - 1622), a Welsh poet and translator who played a significant role in the development of the Welsh literary tradition.
5. Celvin Macdonald (1824 - 1901), a Scottish-Canadian businessman and politician who served as a member of the Canadian House of Commons.
While the name Celvin has waxed and waned in popularity over the centuries, its rich history and diverse cultural roots exemplify the enduring influence of Celtic heritage across Europe and beyond.
People
Celvin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Celvin as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Celvin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Celvin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 109 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Celvin 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 3,144,535 US residents.
Is Celvin a common name?
We classify Celvin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 110 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Celvin most popular?
The single biggest year for Celvin was 2003, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Celvin is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Celvin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 386 people with the name Celvin, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,794 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 Celvin 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 Celvin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Celvin appears almost entirely male. Of the 386 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Celvin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Celvin is Hispanic at 73.3%. The next largest groups are Black (14.5%) and White (6.2%). 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 Celvin most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Celvin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.3% (283 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 Celvin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Celvin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Celvin 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 Celvin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Celvin 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 Celvin 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 Celvin?
You can see how many Americans are named Celvin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.