Ivey
An English feminine name derived from ivy, the evergreen climbing plant.
Name Census estimates that about 4,748 living Americans carry the first name Ivey. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Ivey today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ivey births was 2024 (356 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ivey. 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 Ivey with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 72,189 Americans
Peak year
2024
356 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2023 SSA rank
#788
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ivey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,400 people with the first name Ivey, which placed it at #5,143 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
#5,143
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,400 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ivey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivey is White at 66.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.1%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Ivey 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 Ivey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.8% · 2,272
- Black or African American20.1% · 683
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 192
- Two or more races4.6% · 157
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 77
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Ivey
Ivey is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 6,436 total registrations, 1,803 (28.0%) were male and 4,633 (72.0%) were female.
Ivey as a male name
- Ranked #12,967 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1917 (38 births)
Ivey as a female name
- Ranked #788 in 2024
- 356 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (356 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ivey leans strongly female. 2,724 people counted with this name were female (80.1%), compared with 676 male bearers (19.9%).
Popularity
Ivey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ivey from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,156 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
Ivey 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 Ivey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Iveys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. North Carolina, Georgia, Florida recorded the most babies named Ivey, while Maryland, Colorado, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 126 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ivey
The name Ivey is believed to have originated from the Old English word "iw," which means "yew tree." It is a name that has been in use since the early Middle Ages, particularly in England and other parts of the British Isles.
The earliest known record of the name dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and property holdings in England commissioned by King William the Conqueror in 1086. In this document, the name was written as "Iuede."
Throughout the centuries, the name has had various spellings, including Ive, Ivie, Ivye, and Ivey. It was commonly used as a surname, but it also gained popularity as a given name, particularly for boys.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Ivey was Sir Ivey de la Haye, a Norman knight who fought in the Crusades during the 12th century. Another historical figure was Ivey de Montfort, a 13th-century nobleman and military commander who played a significant role in the Barons' War against King Henry III.
In the 16th century, the name Ivey gained prominence with Ivey Mauduit, an English politician and landowner who served as a Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was born in 1536 and died in 1612.
During the 17th century, the name Ivey appeared in various literary works, including William Shakespeare's play "The Merry Wives of Windsor," where a character named Master Ivey is mentioned.
In the 18th century, one of the most notable figures with the name Ivey was Ivey Gardiner, an English horticulturist and botanist who lived from 1723 to 1793. He was known for his contributions to the study of plants and his work in cultivating various species of flowers and trees.
Another significant figure was Ivey Forrester, a Scottish explorer and adventurer who lived from 1765 to 1835. He is known for his expeditions to the Arctic regions and his detailed accounts of the indigenous peoples and their way of life.
People
Ivey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ivey 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
Ivey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ivey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,748 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ivey 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 72,189 US residents.
Is Ivey a common name?
We classify Ivey as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,436 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ivey most popular?
The single biggest year for Ivey was 2024, when 356 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ivey is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ivey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,400 people with the name Ivey, or 1.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,143 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 Ivey 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 Ivey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ivey leans strongly female. 2,724 people counted with this name were female (80.1%), compared with 676 male bearers (19.9%). 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 Ivey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivey is White at 66.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.1%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Ivey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ivey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.8% (2,272 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 Ivey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ivey a female name?
Yes, 72.0% of people registered as Ivey in the SSA data are female. 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 Ivey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ivey 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 Ivey 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 Ivey as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Ivey on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.