Iverson
Son of Ivor, a masculine name of Old Norse origin meaning warrior archer.
Name Census estimates that about 1,873 living Americans carry the first name Iverson. It is a predominantly male name (95.6% of registrations). The average person named Iverson today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Iverson births was 2024 (149 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Iverson. 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 Iverson with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Iverson is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 93 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Iverson is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 182,998 Americans
Peak year
2024
149 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,352
Tracked since 1891
Census
Iverson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,258 people with the first name Iverson, which placed it at #10,538 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
#10,538
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,258 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
32.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Iverson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iverson is Black at 32.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.9%) and White (18.6%). 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 Iverson 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 Iverson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American32.2% · 405
- Hispanic or Latino27.9% · 351
- White18.6% · 234
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.2% · 128
- Two or more races7.5% · 94
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.7% · 46
Gender
Gender distribution for Iverson
Iverson leans heavily male at 95.6% of total registrations, but 93 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Iverson as a male name
- Ranked #1,352 in 2024
- 140 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (140 births)
Iverson as a female name
- Ranked #10,568 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Iverson leans strongly male. 1,202 people counted with this name were male (95.3%), compared with 59 female bearers (4.7%).
Popularity
Iverson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Iverson from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 638 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
Iverson 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 Iverson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Iversons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Iverson, while Wisconsin, Virginia, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Iverson
The name Iverson originates from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Vikings and other Norse people in Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe during the Middle Ages. It is a combination of two Old Norse words: "Iver" meaning "archer" or "bowman," and "son" meaning "son of." Together, Iverson literally means "son of the archer."
This name likely emerged during the Viking Age, which lasted from the late 8th century to the late 11th century. During this period, the Vikings were known for their prowess in archery and their use of bows and arrows in warfare and hunting. The name Iverson may have been given to the sons of skilled archers or warriors who excelled in archery.
While there are no known references to the name Iverson in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it is believed to have been in use among the Norse people in areas such as modern-day Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and parts of northern Germany and England.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Iverson can be found in the Landnámabók, a medieval Icelandic manuscript that records the settlement of Iceland by Norse settlers in the 9th and 10th centuries. The manuscript mentions an Ivar Arason, who was likely named after his father, an archer or bowman.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Iverson. One of the most famous was Ivar Aasen (1813-1896), a Norwegian philologist and poet who played a key role in the development of the Nynorsk language, one of the two official written standards for Norwegian.
Another notable Iverson was Ivar Vidfamne (c. 655-700), a legendary Swedish king who was known for his large family and is mentioned in several Norse sagas and historical records.
In the United States, one of the most well-known Iversons was Allen Iverson (born 1975), a former professional basketball player who was an 11-time NBA All-Star and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
Elsewhere, Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932) was a Swedish entrepreneur and industrialist who built a global corporate empire based on the match industry before his business empire collapsed in the early 1930s.
Ivar Jacobson (born 1939) is a Swedish computer scientist and software engineer who is best known for his work on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the Rational Unified Process (RUP).
People
Iverson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Iverson 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
Iverson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Iverson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,873 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Iverson 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 182,998 US residents.
Is Iverson a common name?
We classify Iverson as "Rare". It ranks above 93.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,101 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Iverson most popular?
The single biggest year for Iverson was 2024, when 149 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Iverson is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Iverson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,258 people with the name Iverson, or 0.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,538 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 Iverson 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 Iverson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Iverson leans strongly male. 1,202 people counted with this name were male (95.3%), compared with 59 female bearers (4.7%). 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 Iverson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iverson is Black at 32.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.9%) and White (18.6%). 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 Iverson most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Iverson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.2% (405 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 Iverson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Iverson a male name?
Yes, 95.6% of people registered as Iverson 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 Iverson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Iverson 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 Iverson 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 Iverson?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.