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
Census
Ivery in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 591 people with the first name Ivery, which placed it at #18,272 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
#18,272
National first-name rank
People counted
591
591 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
76.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ivery
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivery is Black at 76.1%. The next largest groups are White (13.4%) and Hispanic (6.3%). 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 Ivery 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 Ivery at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American76.1% · 450
- White13.4% · 79
- Hispanic or Latino6.3% · 37
- Two or more races2.9% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 3
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)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ivery on both sides of the split. Of the 595 people counted with this name, 324 were male (54.5%) and 271 were female (45.5%).
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.
How common was Ivery in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 591 people with the name Ivery, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,272 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 Ivery 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 Ivery?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ivery on both sides of the split. Of the 595 people counted with this name, 324 were male (54.5%) and 271 were female (45.5%). 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 Ivery?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivery is Black at 76.1%. The next largest groups are White (13.4%) and Hispanic (6.3%). 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 Ivery most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ivery in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.1% (450 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 Ivery in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Ivery still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ivery 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 Ivery 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 Ivery as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Ivery on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.