Ivery
Of English origin, a variant spelling of the name "Ivory".
Name Census estimates that about 671 living Americans carry the first name Ivery. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 62.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Ivery today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ivery births was 1919 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ivery. 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
- • Ivery sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
671
~ 1 in 510,811 Americans
Peak year
1919
30 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2016 SSA rank
#10,569
Tracked since 1893
Gender
Gender distribution for Ivery
Ivery is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,286 total registrations, 797 (62.0%) were male and 489 (38.0%) were female.
Ivery as a male name
- Ranked #12,976 in 2016
- 5 male births in 2016
- Peak: 1919 (19 births)
Ivery as a female name
- Ranked #10,569 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (20 births)
Popularity
Ivery: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ivery from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 212 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Ivery remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ivery 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 Ivery during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Iverys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Ivery, while Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ivery
The given name Ivery has its roots in the Old English language, originating from the words "ivor" and "ēar," which respectively translate to "ivory" and "one who works with ivory." This suggests that the name was initially associated with individuals involved in the ivory trade or craftsmanship during the early medieval period in England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ivery can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and tenants commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. In this document, an individual named Ivery is listed as a resident of the village of Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire.
Interestingly, the name also appears in various religious texts, including the Wycliffe Bible, an early English translation of the Bible dating back to the late 14th century. In this text, the name Ivery is mentioned as a variant spelling of the biblical name Ivory.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ivery. One of the earliest was Ivery of Dunstable, a 13th-century English philosopher and logician who taught at the University of Paris. Another remarkable figure was Sir Ivery Woodville (1438-1491), a prominent English nobleman and courtier during the Wars of the Roses.
In the 16th century, Ivery Boisseau (1523-1587) was a French Huguenot theologian and scholar who played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation. Moving forward to the 18th century, Ivery Gebhart (1760-1824) was a German-born American farmer and soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War.
Perhaps one of the most celebrated figures with the name Ivery was the English artist and illustrator Ivery Openhym (1857-1932), renowned for his intricate book illustrations and contributions to the Arts and Crafts movement.
While the name Ivery may have fallen out of widespread use in modern times, its rich historical roots and associations with various professions, religious contexts, and notable individuals throughout different eras make it a fascinating name with a unique and intriguing backstory.
People
Ivery + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ivery 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
Ivery: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ivery?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 671 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ivery 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 510,811 US residents.
Is Ivery a common name?
We classify Ivery as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,286 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ivery most popular?
The single biggest year for Ivery was 1919, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ivery is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ivery a male name?
Yes, 62.0% of people registered as Ivery 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.
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.