Grove
A small group of trees growing close together.
Name Census estimates that about 33 living Americans carry the first name Grove. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Grove today is around 79 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Grove births was 1917 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Grove. 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
- • The typical person named Grove is about 79 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Groves were born before 1957.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Grove. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
33
~ 1 in 10,386,495 Americans
Peak year
1917
10 babies that year
Average age
79
years old
1959 SSA rank
#4,224
Tracked since 1883
Census
Grove in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 120 people with the first name Grove, which placed it at #50,338 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
#50,338
National first-name rank
People counted
120
120 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Grove
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Grove is White at 85.8%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Grove 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 Grove at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.8% · 103
- Black or African American8.3% · 10
- Two or more races4.2% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 2
Popularity
Grove: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Grove from the 1880s through to the 1950s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 43 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Grove remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Grove 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 Grove 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 Grove
The name Grove traces its origins to Old English, deriving from the word "graf" or "graef," which referred to a small copse or thicket of trees. This name likely emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, sometime between the 5th and 11th centuries AD. It was initially used as a descriptive surname, denoting someone who lived near or worked in a grove of trees.
While the name's exact origin is uncertain, it may have been influenced by the Old Norse word "gróf," meaning a small forest or grove. This suggests that the name could have been adopted or altered by Norse settlers in regions like Yorkshire and East Anglia during the Viking Age.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Grove can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a surname referring to individuals living near groves or woodlands. This historical record provides valuable insight into the name's widespread use in medieval England.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Grove. One such figure was Andrew Grove (1936-2016), a Hungarian-American businessman who co-founded Intel Corporation and served as its CEO from 1987 to 1998. His leadership and innovative contributions to the semiconductor industry earned him widespread acclaim.
Another prominent individual was Sir George Grove (1820-1900), an English writer and scholar who is best known for editing the influential Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. His work significantly advanced the study and understanding of music history and theory.
In the realm of literature, the name Grove is associated with Frederick Philip Grove (1879-1948), a Canadian novelist and poet of German origin. His works, including the novel "Settlers of the Marsh," explored themes of immigration and the settler experience in the Canadian prairies.
The name also gained recognition through Sir Walter Grove (1892-1972), a British physicist and chemist renowned for his contributions to the study of electrochemistry and fuel cells. His groundbreaking research laid the foundations for modern fuel cell technology.
Finally, mention should be made of Robert Grove (1634-1696), an English nonconformist minister and writer who played a significant role in the dissenting religious movements of the 17th century. His works, including "The Persuasive to Conformity," reflected the religious and political tensions of the time.
People
Grove + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Grove as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Grove: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Grove?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 33 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Grove 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 10,386,495 US residents.
Is Grove a common name?
We classify Grove as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 124 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Grove most popular?
The single biggest year for Grove was 1917, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Grove is about 79 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Grove in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 120 people with the name Grove, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #50,338 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 Grove 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 Grove?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Grove leans strongly male. 111 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 9 female bearers (7.5%). 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 Grove?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Grove is White at 85.8%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Grove most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Grove in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.8% (103 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 Grove in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Grove a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Grove 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 Grove still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Grove 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 Grove 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 common is the name Grove?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Grove at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.