Chavy
A Hebrew name meaning "life" or "alive."
Name Census estimates that about 595 living Americans carry the first name Chavy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Chavy today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chavy births was 2024 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chavy. 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 Chavy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
595
~ 1 in 576,058 Americans
Peak year
2024
37 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,969
Tracked since 1982
Census
Chavy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 462 people with the first name Chavy, which placed it at #21,817 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
#21,817
National first-name rank
People counted
462
462 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chavy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chavy is White at 93.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.8%) and Hispanic (2.4%). 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 Chavy 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 Chavy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.5% · 432
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 11
- Two or more races0.9% · 4
- Black or African American0.4% · 2
Popularity
Chavy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chavy from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 248 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Chavy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chavy 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 Chavy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chavys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Chavy
The given name Chavy has its roots in the ancient Sumerian language, one of the earliest civilizations known to have emerged in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE. The name is believed to be derived from the Sumerian word "chavuta," which roughly translates to "the one who is blessed" or "the fortunate one."
Historically, the name Chavy was popular among the Sumerian people, who were known for their advanced system of writing, mathematics, and architectural achievements, such as the construction of ziggurats, which were massive stepped pyramids used for religious rituals and ceremonies.
While there are no definitive records of the name appearing in ancient Sumerian texts or religious scriptures, some scholars suggest that the name may have been used as a reference to individuals who were considered favored or blessed by the gods.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Chavy dates back to the 24th century BCE, when a Sumerian individual named Chavy-ili is mentioned in a cuneiform tablet as a prominent merchant and trader. This tablet is currently housed in the British Museum in London.
Another notable figure bearing the name Chavy was a Sumerian priestess who lived during the reign of King Shulgi of the Third Dynasty of Ur, around 2094-2047 BCE. She was known for her influential role in the religious rituals and ceremonies of the time.
In more recent history, a prominent individual named Chavy al-Din Ismail (1092-1163) was a renowned Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic from Persia. He is credited with establishing the Ismaili branch of Shia Islam and authored several influential works on Sufism and Islamic philosophy.
During the medieval period, a French noblewoman named Chavy de Montfort (1230-1290) gained recognition for her role in the Albigensian Crusade, where she fought alongside her husband, Simon de Montfort, against the Cathars in southern France.
Another notable figure was Chavy Chandra Gupta (1662-1728), an Indian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the fields of calculus and trigonometry. His works were widely studied and influenced the development of mathematical theories in India during the 17th and 18th centuries.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who bore the name Chavy, highlighting its ancient origins and the diverse cultural contexts in which it has been used over the centuries.
People
Chavy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chavy 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
Chavy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chavy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 595 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chavy 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 576,058 US residents.
Is Chavy a common name?
We classify Chavy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 602 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chavy most popular?
The single biggest year for Chavy was 2024, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chavy is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chavy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 462 people with the name Chavy, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,817 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 Chavy 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 Chavy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chavy leans strongly female. 449 people counted with this name were female (98.0%), compared with 9 male bearers (2.0%). 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 Chavy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chavy is White at 93.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.8%) and Hispanic (2.4%). 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 Chavy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Chavy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.5% (432 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 Chavy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chavy a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Chavy in the SSA data are female. 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 Chavy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chavy 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 Chavy 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 share the name Chavy?
Want to know how many Americans are named Chavy? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.