Severn
A river name originating from the term for a boundary, from Old English.
Name Census estimates that about 61 living Americans carry the first name Severn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Severn today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Severn births was 1924 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Severn. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Severn. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
61
~ 1 in 5,618,924 Americans
Peak year
1924
9 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2006 SSA rank
#11,815
Tracked since 1915
Census
Severn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 200 people with the first name Severn, which placed it at #38,397 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
#38,397
National first-name rank
People counted
200
200 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Severn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Severn is White at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (2.5%). 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 Severn 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 Severn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.5% · 153
- Black or African American16.5% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 5
- Two or more races2.5% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 2
Popularity
Severn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Severn from the 1910s through to the 2000s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 42 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
Severn 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 Severn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Severn
The given name Severn has its origins in the Celtic languages, particularly Welsh and Brythonic. It is believed to have derived from the name of the River Severn, which flows through England and Wales. The river's name is thought to come from the Proto-Celtic word *ṡaḫar, meaning "wanderer" or "meandering."
In ancient times, the River Severn was known by various names, including Sábrina and Sabrina. The name Sabrina appears in medieval Welsh literature, such as the Mabinogion, where it is associated with a mythological figure who became the goddess or spirit of the river.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Severn as a personal name dates back to the 12th century. A Welsh prince named Seisyll ap Dyfnwal, who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, had a son named Severn. This usage suggests that the name had already gained popularity as a given name by that time.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Severn. In the 17th century, Severn Ramsden (1622-1676) was an English politician who served as a member of Parliament. Another Severn Ramsden (1760-1830) was a British landowner and Member of Parliament in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Severn Darden (1929-1995) was an American businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the Darden Restaurants corporation, known for chains like Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse. Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 1979) is a Canadian environmental activist and speaker who gained international recognition at the age of 12 for her speech at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
In literature, the name Severn appears in the work of British novelist Thomas Hardy. In his novel "The Hand of Ethelberta" (1876), one of the characters is named Lord Severn Haverill. This literary reference further solidifies the name's association with the River Severn region.
People
Severn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Severn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Severn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Severn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 61 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Severn 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 5,618,924 US residents.
Is Severn a common name?
We classify Severn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 126 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Severn most popular?
The single biggest year for Severn was 1924, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Severn is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Severn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 200 people with the name Severn, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,397 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 Severn 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 Severn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Severn leans strongly male. 175 people counted with this name were male (86.2%), compared with 28 female bearers (13.8%). 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 Severn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Severn is White at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (2.5%). 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 Severn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Severn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.5% (153 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 Severn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Severn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Severn 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 Severn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Severn 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 Severn 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 the name Severn?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Severn, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.