Orville
From French origin, meaning "precious town."
Name Census estimates that about 7,678 living Americans carry the first name Orville. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Orville today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orville births was 1920 (1,203 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orville. 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 Orville with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Orville is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 155 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Orville is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Orvilles were born before 1964.
People living today
7.7K
~ 1 in 44,641 Americans
Peak year
1920
1,203 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,812
Tracked since 1880
Census
Orville in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,833 people with the first name Orville, which placed it at #2,665 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
#2,665
National first-name rank
People counted
8.8K
8,833 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Orville
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orville is White at 75.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Orville 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 Orville at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.5% · 6,673
- Black or African American16.7% · 1,478
- Two or more races2.7% · 238
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 177
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 153
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 114
Gender
Gender distribution for Orville
Out of the 35,206 babies given the name Orville since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Orville as a male name
- Ranked #7,117 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (1,195 births)
Orville as a female name
- Ranked #4,812 in 1934
- 5 female births in 1934
- Peak: 1921 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orville appears almost entirely male. Of the 8,836 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Orville: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orville from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 9,806 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
Orville 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 Orville during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orvilles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri recorded the most babies named Orville, while South Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 667 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Orville
The name Orville is of French origin, derived from the Old French name Orville, which itself comes from the Latin word "aurea" meaning "golden" and the word "villa" meaning "town" or "village". The name dates back to the Middle Ages and was initially used as a surname for someone who hailed from a particular golden or prosperous town.
While the name has no known direct references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it likely gained popularity during the High Middle Ages when French naming conventions were spreading across Europe. The earliest recorded use of Orville as a first name can be traced back to the 12th century in parts of what is now France and England.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Orville was Orville de Willuby, an English knight who lived in the late 12th century and fought in the Third Crusade under King Richard I. Another early bearer of the name was Orville de Caux, a French nobleman from the 13th century who was known for his patronage of the arts.
In the 19th century, the name gained renewed prominence with the birth of Orville Wright (1871-1948), the American aviation pioneer who, along with his brother Wilbur, is credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane. Orville Wright's achievements helped popularize the name in the United States.
Another notable Orville was Orville Redenbacher (1907-1995), the American businessman and entrepreneur who founded the popular popcorn brand bearing his name. His success in the food industry helped cement the name's recognition in the 20th century.
Other notable individuals named Orville include Orville Hickok Browning (1806-1881), an American politician and Senator from Illinois, Orville Schell (born 1940), an American author and journalist, and Orville Dennison (1835-1904), a Canadian businessman and politician who served as a member of the House of Commons.
People
Orville + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orville as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Orville: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orville?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,678 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orville 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 44,641 US residents.
Is Orville a common name?
We classify Orville as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 35,206 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orville most popular?
The single biggest year for Orville was 1920, when 1,203 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orville is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Orville in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,833 people with the name Orville, or 2.92 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,665 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 Orville 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 Orville?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orville appears almost entirely male. Of the 8,836 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Orville?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orville is White at 75.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Orville most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Orville in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.5% (6,673 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 Orville in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Orville a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Orville 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 Orville still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Orville 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 Orville 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 Orville?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Orville at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.