Tarver
A variant of the English surname derived from a Middle English term meaning "to prepare or dress leather".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Tarver. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tarver today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tarver births was 2006 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tarver. 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 Tarver. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
2006
5 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2012 SSA rank
#13,985
Tracked since 2006
Popularity
Tarver: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tarver from the 2000s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5 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
Tarver 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 Tarver 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 Tarver
The name Tarver is of English origin, derived from the Old English occupational surname "tarfere," meaning a person who worked with tar or pitch. It is believed to have first emerged as a given name in the late medieval period, around the 13th or 14th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tarver can be found in the Essex County court records of 1275, where a man named Tarver de Bures is mentioned. This suggests that the name was already in use as a surname in England during that time.
In the 16th century, the name Tarver appeared in the historical records of Gloucestershire, England. A notable figure bearing this name was Tarver Myles (1525-1592), a merchant and landowner who lived in the village of Painswick.
Moving forward to the 17th century, the name Tarver gained some prominence in the English literary world. Tarver Edmunds (1619-1676) was an English poet and playwright who wrote several works, including the play "The Jealous Lovers" and a collection of poems titled "Amorous Fancies."
In the late 18th century, Tarver Reaveley (1742-1815) was a notable English architect who designed several churches and public buildings in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. His most famous work is the Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas in Beverley, which he designed in the Gothic Revival style.
Another individual worth mentioning is Tarver Prentice (1808-1870), an English artist and illustrator who is best known for his illustrations in the works of Charles Dickens. His artwork appeared in the first editions of several Dickens novels, including "David Copperfield" and "The Old Curiosity Shop."
While the name Tarver has English roots, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in the United States. One notable American figure with this name was Tarver Brown (1890-1977), a professional baseball player who played for the St. Louis Browns and the Philadelphia Phillies in the early 20th century.
People
Tarver + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tarver as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tarver: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tarver?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tarver 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 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Tarver a common name?
We classify Tarver as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tarver most popular?
The single biggest year for Tarver was 2006, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tarver is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Tarver in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tarver a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tarver 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 Tarver still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tarver 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 Tarver 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are called Tarver?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.