Iver
A masculine Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse name "Ivarr", meaning "warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 984 living Americans carry the first name Iver. It is a predominantly male name (94.1% of registrations). The average person named Iver today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Iver births was 2023 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Iver. 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 Iver with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
984
~ 1 in 348,328 Americans
Peak year
2023
86 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,191
Tracked since 1884
Census
Iver in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 880 people with the first name Iver, which placed it at #13,642 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
#13,642
National first-name rank
People counted
880
880 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Iver
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iver is White at 72.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.9%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Iver 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 Iver at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.2% · 635
- Hispanic or Latino14.9% · 131
- Black or African American6.4% · 56
- Two or more races3.8% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Iver
Iver leans heavily male at 94.1% of total registrations, but 102 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Iver as a male name
- Ranked #2,191 in 2024
- 66 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (81 births)
Iver as a female name
- Ranked #16,119 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1920 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Iver leans strongly male. 807 people counted with this name were male (92.3%), compared with 67 female bearers (7.7%).
Popularity
Iver: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Iver from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 380 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
Iver 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 Iver during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ivers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Minnesota, California, North Dakota recorded the most babies named Iver, while New York, Indiana, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Iver
The name Iver is of Scandinavian origin, derived from the Old Norse name Ivarr, which itself is a compound of the elements yr (meaning "archer" or "bow") and arr (meaning "warrior"). The name has its roots in the Viking culture and was popular among the Norse settlers who traveled and established communities throughout Northern Europe during the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries).
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Iver comes from the Icelandic Landnámabók, a medieval manuscript that chronicles the settlement of Iceland. It mentions an Iver the Footless (Ivarr inn fótlami) who was among the first Norwegian settlers to arrive in Iceland in the late 9th century.
In the realm of mythology, the name Iver holds significance as it was borne by Ivar the Boneless (Ivarr inn beinlausi), a legendary Viking ruler and one of the sons of the famous Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok. Ivar the Boneless is a prominent figure in the Norse sagas and is depicted as a fearsome and cunning leader who played a crucial role in the Viking invasion of England in the 9th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have carried the name Iver. One of the earliest was Iver Hvide (c. 1040 – c. 1130), a Danish nobleman and one of the most powerful men in Denmark during the late 11th and early 12th centuries. He was instrumental in the construction of several churches and monasteries, including the Benedictine monastery in Odense.
Another prominent figure was Iver Iversen (1543-1623), a Norwegian merchant and shipowner who played a significant role in the development of the Norwegian shipping industry. He was one of the wealthiest men in Norway during his lifetime and financed several expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic regions.
In more recent times, Iver Jåtten (1854-1936) was a Norwegian folk musician and one of the most influential performers of the traditional Hardanger fiddle. He was a renowned folk artist and helped preserve and popularize traditional Norwegian music.
Iver Giaever (born 1929) is a Norwegian-American physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for his experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in superconductors. He is also known for his work in biophysics and his contributions to the study of nanoscale materials.
Iver Bunker Mackay (1793-1858) was a Scottish-American naval officer who served in the War of 1812 and later became a prominent shipbuilder and businessman in New York. He founded the Mackay and Aldrich shipyard, which played a significant role in the maritime industry of the time.
People
Iver + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Iver 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
Iver: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Iver?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 984 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Iver 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 348,328 US residents.
Is Iver a common name?
We classify Iver as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,723 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Iver most popular?
The single biggest year for Iver was 2023, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Iver is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Iver in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 880 people with the name Iver, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,642 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 Iver 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 Iver?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Iver leans strongly male. 807 people counted with this name were male (92.3%), compared with 67 female bearers (7.7%). 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 Iver?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iver is White at 72.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.9%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Iver most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Iver in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.2% (635 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 Iver in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Iver a male name?
Yes, 94.1% of people registered as Iver 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 Iver still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Iver 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 Iver 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 Iver as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.