Grover
Grover means "grove farm; small woods" or "prosperous grove" of Germanic origin.
Name Census estimates that about 7,283 living Americans carry the first name Grover. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Grover today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Grover births was 1884 (809 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Grover. 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
- • Although Grover is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 92 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Grover is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Grovers were born before 1968.
People living today
7.3K
~ 1 in 47,062 Americans
Peak year
1884
809 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,102
Tracked since 1880
Census
Grover in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,507 people with the first name Grover, which placed it at #3,278 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
#3,278
National first-name rank
People counted
6.5K
6,507 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Grover
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Grover is White at 71.4%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (3.1%). 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 Grover 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 Grover at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.4% · 4,649
- Black or African American21.1% · 1,373
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 202
- Two or more races2.8% · 181
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 62
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 40
Gender
Gender distribution for Grover
Out of the 27,181 babies given the name Grover since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Grover as a male name
- Ranked #4,102 in 2024
- 26 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1884 (802 births)
Grover as a female name
- Ranked #4,642 in 1946
- 6 female births in 1946
- Peak: 1920 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Grover appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,509 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Grover: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Grover from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 5,638 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Grover 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 Grover during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Grovers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama recorded the most babies named Grover, while New Mexico, Nebraska, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 510 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Grover
The name Grover has its origins in Old English and is derived from two words: 'gro', meaning to grow or thrive, and 'ver', which refers to a grove or small forest. Thus, the name Grover essentially means 'prosperous grove' or 'thriving woods'.
During the Middle Ages, the name Grover was relatively common in England and parts of Normandy, where it was typically associated with those who lived near or worked in wooded areas. Its earliest known usage can be traced back to the 11th century, with records showing a Grover de Bucton living in Lincolnshire, England, around 1086.
In terms of historical references, the name Grover does not appear to have been prominently featured in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, it was not entirely uncommon among the Anglo-Saxon population in medieval England.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Grover was Grover de Bois, a Norman landowner who lived in Wiltshire, England, in the late 12th century. Another notable figure was Grover de Montfort, a 13th-century knight and member of the influential Montfort family.
In the 15th century, a Grover Chaucer, believed to be a distant relative of the renowned poet Geoffrey Chaucer, was recorded as a merchant and landowner in London. During the 16th century, Grover Smythe, born in 1512, was a prominent English lawyer and member of the Privy Council under Queen Elizabeth I.
Moving into more recent history, Grover Cleveland, born in 1837 and died in 1908, was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, serving two non-consecutive terms from 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897. He is the only president to have been elected to non-consecutive terms.
Another notable Grover was Grover Loening, an American aeronautical engineer and aircraft builder, born in 1888 and died in 1976. He is credited with designing and building some of the earliest successful commercial aircraft and is considered a pioneer in the field of aviation.
People
Grover + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Grover 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
Grover: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Grover?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,283 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Grover 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 47,062 US residents.
Is Grover a common name?
We classify Grover as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 27,181 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Grover most popular?
The single biggest year for Grover was 1884, when 809 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Grover is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Grover in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,507 people with the name Grover, or 2.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,278 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 Grover 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 Grover?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Grover appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,509 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Grover?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Grover is White at 71.4%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (3.1%). 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 Grover most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Grover in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.4% (4,649 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 Grover in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Grover a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Grover 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 Grover still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Grover 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 Grover 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 named Grover?
Want to know how many people share the name Grover? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.