Javi
Nickname for Xavier derived from the Basque form of the Latin name meaning "bright" or "new house".
Name Census estimates that about 588 living Americans carry the first name Javi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Javi today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Javi births was 2023 (77 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Javi. 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 Javi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
588
~ 1 in 582,916 Americans
Peak year
2023
77 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,016
Tracked since 1988
Census
Javi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 732 people with the first name Javi, which placed it at #15,649 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
#15,649
National first-name rank
People counted
732
732 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
84.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Javi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Javi is Hispanic at 84.7%. The next largest groups are White (6.3%) and Black (5.9%). 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 Javi 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 Javi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino84.7% · 620
- White6.3% · 46
- Black or African American5.9% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 18
- Two or more races0.7% · 5
Popularity
Javi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Javi from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 296 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
Javi 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 Javi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Javis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Javi, while North Carolina, Florida, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Javi
The name Javi is a diminutive form of the Spanish name Javier, which is derived from the Basque name Xabier. The Basque name Xabier originated from the medieval Navarrese municipality of Javier, located in the valley of Navarre in northern Spain. This place name is believed to come from the Basque word "etxaberri," which means "new house."
The name Javi gained popularity in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries due to the influence of Saint Francis Xavier, a 16th-century Jesuit missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. Saint Francis Xavier, whose birth name was Francisco de Jaso y Azpilicueta, was born in 1506 in the Kingdom of Navarre and adopted the name Xavier after the municipality where he was born.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Javi can be found in the 16th-century Spanish novel "Lazarillo de Tormes," where a character named Javier is mentioned. Another notable historical figure with the name Javi was Javier Pérez de Guzmán, a Spanish nobleman and military leader who lived in the 15th century.
Throughout history, several influential figures have borne the name Javi or its variants. One of the most famous is Francisco de Javier, better known as St. Francis Xavier, the Catholic missionary who was born in 1506 and died in 1552. Another notable figure is Javier Solana, a Spanish physicist and politician who served as the Secretary-General of NATO from 1995 to 1999 and the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy from 1999 to 2009.
In the realm of sports, Javier Hernández, a Mexican professional soccer player who plays as a striker for the LA Galaxy, was born in 1988. Javier Sotomayor, a Cuban former track and field athlete who specialized in the high jump and set the world record in 1993, was born in 1967. Javier Clemente, a Spanish former professional football player and manager, was born in 1950.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Javi or its variants, highlighting the rich cultural and historical significance of this name.
People
Javi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Javi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Javi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Javi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 588 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Javi 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 582,916 US residents.
Is Javi a common name?
We classify Javi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 592 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Javi most popular?
The single biggest year for Javi was 2023, when 77 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Javi is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Javi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 732 people with the name Javi, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,649 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 Javi 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 Javi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Javi leans strongly male. 684 people counted with this name were male (93.7%), compared with 46 female bearers (6.3%). 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 Javi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Javi is Hispanic at 84.7%. The next largest groups are White (6.3%) and Black (5.9%). 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 Javi most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Javi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.7% (620 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 Javi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Javi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Javi 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 Javi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Javi 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 Javi 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 common is the name Javi?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.