Irving
A masculine name of Scottish origin meaning "green river/valley".
Name Census estimates that about 13,264 living Americans carry the first name Irving. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Irving today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Irving births was 1918 (1,538 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Irving. 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 Irving with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Irving is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 85 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Irving have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 25,841 Americans
Peak year
1918
1,538 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,617
Tracked since 1880
Census
Irving in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 14,719 people with the first name Irving, which placed it at #1,919 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
#1,919
National first-name rank
People counted
15K
14,719 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
46.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Irving
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Irving is Hispanic at 46.9%. The next largest groups are White (34.8%) and Black (14.3%). 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 Irving 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 Irving at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino46.9% · 6,904
- White34.8% · 5,127
- Black or African American14.3% · 2,098
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 315
- Two or more races1.2% · 173
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 102
Gender
Gender distribution for Irving
Out of the 44,358 babies given the name Irving since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Irving as a male name
- Ranked #1,617 in 2024
- 105 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (1,533 births)
Irving as a female name
- Ranked #3,486 in 1930
- 8 female births in 1930
- Peak: 1928 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Irving appears almost entirely male. Of the 14,717 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Irving: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Irving 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 11,960 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
Irving 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 Irving during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Irvings live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Irving, while Oklahoma, Hawaii, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 809 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Irving
The given name Irving has its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the 11th century or earlier. It is derived from the Old English words "Ifer" and "ing," which together translate to "green riverbank." This suggests that the name was likely associated with individuals who lived near or owned land near a riverbank with lush greenery.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Irving can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings and property ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This historical record lists several individuals with variations of the name, such as "Iruine" and "Iruingus."
During the Middle Ages, the name Irving gained popularity among the nobility and landed gentry in Scotland and Northern England. It is believed to have been particularly prevalent in the Scottish Borders region, where several families bore the name or variations of it, such as the Irvings of Drum.
Notable historical figures with the given name Irving include Irving of Strasburg (c. 1200-1278), a German priest and theologian who wrote extensively on Church doctrine and canon law. Another notable bearer of the name was Irving of Falkirk (c. 1275-1324), a Scottish nobleman and military leader who fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence against England.
In the 16th century, the name Irving gained further prominence with the birth of Sir Alexander Irving of Drum (1513-1603), a Scottish knight and landowner known for his role in the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. He was a staunch supporter of the reformer John Knox and played a significant role in the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.
During the 19th century, the name Irving became more widely used beyond its traditional strongholds in Scotland and Northern England. One of the most famous individuals with the name was the American author Washington Irving (1783-1859), best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." His literary works and use of the name helped to popularize it in the United States.
Other notable individuals with the given name Irving throughout history include Irving Berlin (1888-1989), the renowned American composer and lyricist known for timeless songs like "God Bless America" and "White Christmas." Sir Irving John Gill (1870-1936) was a prominent English architect who played a significant role in the development of the modern architecture movement in Southern California.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Irving
People
Irving + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Irving as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Irving: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Irving?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,264 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Irving 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 25,841 US residents.
Is Irving a common name?
We classify Irving as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 44,358 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Irving most popular?
The single biggest year for Irving was 1918, when 1,538 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Irving is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Irving in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 14,719 people with the name Irving, or 4.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,919 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 Irving 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 Irving?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Irving appears almost entirely male. Of the 14,717 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Irving?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Irving is Hispanic at 46.9%. The next largest groups are White (34.8%) and Black (14.3%). 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 Irving most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Irving in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.9% (6,904 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 Irving in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Irving a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Irving 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 Irving still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Irving 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 Irving 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 Irving?
You can see how many people share the name Irving on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.