Denver
A baby boy's name of uncertain origin potentially meaning "green valley".
Name Census estimates that about 16,987 living Americans carry the first name Denver. It sits at #486 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Denver today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Denver births was 2024 (995 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Denver. 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 Denver with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
17K
~ 1 in 20,177 Americans
Peak year
2024
995 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#486
Tracked since 1880
Census
Denver in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,468 people with the first name Denver, which placed it at #2,263 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
#2,263
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,468 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Denver
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Denver is White at 72.4%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Denver 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 Denver at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.4% · 8,302
- Black or African American15.8% · 1,814
- Two or more races4.9% · 562
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 432
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 241
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 117
Gender
Gender distribution for Denver
Denver leans heavily male at 82.6% of total registrations, but 3,909 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Denver as a male name
- Ranked #486 in 2024
- 633 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (644 births)
Denver as a female name
- Ranked #775 in 2024
- 362 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (365 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Denver leans strongly male. 9,629 people counted with this name were male (84.0%), compared with 1,839 female bearers (16.0%).
Popularity
Denver: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Denver from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 4,690 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Denver 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 Denver during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Denvers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia recorded the most babies named Denver, while South Dakota, Nebraska, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 407 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Denver
The given name Denver is a relatively modern name, originating in the late 19th century. It is an English name derived from the city of Denver, Colorado, which was founded in 1858 and named after James W. Denver, the governor of Kansas Territory at the time. The city itself was likely named after the nearby Denver Creek, whose name may have come from the French term for "green valley."
While the name Denver does not have ancient roots or connections to historical texts or religious scriptures, it gained popularity as a first name in the United States in the early 20th century. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Denver was Denver S. Dickerson, born in 1907 in Texas. Dickerson was a noted educator and civil rights leader who served as the president of several historically black colleges and universities.
Another notable individual named Denver was Denver Pyle, an American actor born in 1920. Pyle was best known for his roles in television shows such as The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and The Dukes of Hazzard. He had a successful career spanning over five decades and passed away in 1997.
Denver Nuggets, born in 1926 in Mississippi, was a professional baseball player who played in the Negro Leagues and later for the Philadelphia Stars. He was known for his exceptional defensive skills as an outfielder and played a significant role in breaking down racial barriers in professional baseball.
Denver Randleman, born in 1951, is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded the successful footwear company Reebok. He played a crucial role in the company's growth and expansion, helping to establish Reebok as a leading brand in the athletic footwear industry.
Denver Moore, born in 1936, was a former homeless man whose life story was chronicled in the bestselling book "Same Kind of Different as Me." His friendship with a wealthy art dealer and their journey of mutual understanding and redemption inspired many and shed light on the struggles of homelessness and poverty.
People
Denver + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Denver as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Denver: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Denver?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16,987 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Denver 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 20,177 US residents.
Is Denver a common name?
We classify Denver as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22,502 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Denver most popular?
The single biggest year for Denver was 2024, when 995 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Denver is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Denver in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,468 people with the name Denver, or 3.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,263 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 Denver 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 Denver?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Denver leans strongly male. 9,629 people counted with this name were male (84.0%), compared with 1,839 female bearers (16.0%). 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 Denver?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Denver is White at 72.4%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Denver most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Denver in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.4% (8,302 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 Denver in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Denver a male name?
Yes, 82.6% of people registered as Denver 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 Denver still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Denver 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 Denver 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 Denver?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.