Leverne
A feminine name of uncertain origin, potentially derived from lavender.
Name Census estimates that about 585 living Americans carry the first name Leverne. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Leverne today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leverne births was 1920 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leverne. 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
- • The typical person named Leverne is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Levernes were born before 1965.
People living today
585
~ 1 in 585,905 Americans
Peak year
1920
42 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1982 SSA rank
#6,956
Tracked since 1913
Census
Leverne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 567 people with the first name Leverne, which placed it at #18,871 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
#18,871
National first-name rank
People counted
567
567 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
62.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leverne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leverne is Black at 62.3%. The next largest groups are White (30.3%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Leverne 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 Leverne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American62.3% · 353
- White30.3% · 172
- Two or more races2.8% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Leverne
Leverne is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,472 total registrations, 985 (66.9%) were male and 487 (33.1%) were female.
Leverne as a male name
- Ranked #6,956 in 1982
- 5 male births in 1982
- Peak: 1918 (27 births)
Leverne as a female name
- Ranked #9,016 in 1971
- 5 female births in 1971
- Peak: 1920 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Leverne on both sides of the split. Of the 553 people counted with this name, 332 were male (60.0%) and 221 were female (40.0%).
Popularity
Leverne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leverne from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 333 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leverne 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 Leverne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Levernes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. South Carolina, North Carolina, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Leverne, while Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leverne
The name Leverne is an English variant of the French name Laverne, which traces its origins back to the ancient Roman goddess of thieves and tricksters, Laverna. The name is derived from the Latin word "lavernio," meaning "to deceive" or "to cheat."
Laverna was a relatively obscure goddess in the Roman pantheon, but her cult following was particularly popular among the lower classes, especially thieves, beggars, and other outcasts of society. She was believed to protect those who lived outside the law and to assist them in their illicit activities.
The earliest recorded use of the name Leverne dates back to the late 16th century in England. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Leverne Browne, an English merchant who lived in London in the 1580s. Records show that he was involved in several legal disputes over property and business dealings.
Another notable figure with the name Leverne was Leverne Archer (1855-1932), an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd Governor of Maryland from 1909 to 1912. He was a prominent figure in the Democratic Party and played a significant role in the progressive reforms of his era.
In the literary world, the name Leverne gained some recognition through the character of Leverne Coolidge, a fictional character in the novels of American author Rex Stout. Coolidge was a private investigator and frequent ally of Stout's famous detective, Nero Wolfe.
One of the most famous bearers of the name was Leverne McDonnell (1898-1967), an American aviator and businessman who co-founded the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, which later merged with Douglas Aircraft Company to form McDonnell Douglas Corporation, a major aerospace manufacturer.
Another notable figure named Leverne was Leverne Timmerman (1925-2014), an American basketball player who played for the Indianapolis Kautskys and the Fort Wayne Pistons in the National Basketball Association during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
While the name Leverne has its roots in ancient Roman mythology and has been in use for centuries, it has never been a particularly common name. However, it has been borne by a diverse array of individuals throughout history, from merchants and lawyers to politicians, writers, aviators, and athletes.
People
Leverne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leverne as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Leverne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leverne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 585 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leverne 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 585,905 US residents.
Is Leverne a common name?
We classify Leverne as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,472 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leverne most popular?
The single biggest year for Leverne was 1920, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leverne is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leverne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 567 people with the name Leverne, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,871 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 Leverne 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 Leverne?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Leverne on both sides of the split. Of the 553 people counted with this name, 332 were male (60.0%) and 221 were female (40.0%). 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 Leverne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leverne is Black at 62.3%. The next largest groups are White (30.3%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Leverne most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Leverne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.3% (353 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 Leverne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leverne a male name?
Yes, 66.9% of people registered as Leverne 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 Leverne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leverne 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 Leverne 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 named Leverne?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Leverne at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.