NameCensus.
Very Rare

Tarvis

A rare masculine name, potentially derived from the German place name Tharvis.

Name Census estimates that about 382 living Americans carry the first name Tarvis. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tarvis today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tarvis births was 1986 (26 babies).

This page is the full Name Census profile for Tarvis. 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.

People living today

382

~ 1 in 897,263 Americans

Peak year

1986

26 babies that year

Average age

41

years old

2014 SSA rank

#13,829

Tracked since 1970

Popularity

Tarvis: popularity over time

The SSA tracks Tarvis from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 161 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.

Babies born per year

07132026197019751980198519901995200020052010

Decades

Tarvis 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 Tarvis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.

DecadeMaleFemaleTotal
1970s1280128
1980s1610161
1990s83083
2000s13013
2010s16016

Geography

Where Tarvis' live

The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Tarvis, while South Carolina, Georgia, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.

Origin

Meaning and history of Tarvis

The name Tarvis is believed to have its origins in the ancient Germanic language, where it was derived from the root word "tarv," meaning "strong" or "courageous." This name was particularly popular among the Germanic tribes that inhabited the regions of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland during the early medieval period, around the 5th to 8th centuries AD.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tarvis can be found in the Hildebrandslied, an Old High German heroic poem dating back to the 9th century. In this epic, a character named Tarvis is mentioned as a brave warrior who fought alongside the legendary hero Hildebrand. This suggests that the name was already in use and associated with qualities of strength and valor during that time.

The name Tarvis also appears in various medieval records and chronicles, such as the Annales Regni Francorum (Annals of the Frankish Kingdom), which document the lives and deeds of Frankish rulers and nobility. One notable figure bearing this name was Tarvis the Valiant, a Frankish knight who fought alongside Charlemagne in the late 8th century and was renowned for his bravery in battle.

As the Germanic tribes migrated and settled in different regions of Europe, the name Tarvis spread and evolved into various spellings and forms. In Scandinavia, for instance, it took the form of "Tarvid" or "Tarvald," while in England, it became "Tarvet" or "Tarvett."

Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tarvis. One such figure was Tarvis von Augsburg, a German monk and scholar who lived in the 11th century and was renowned for his writings on theology and philosophy. Another was Tarvis the Bold, a 12th-century Norwegian chieftain and explorer who is credited with leading one of the first Viking expeditions to Greenland.

In the 13th century, Tarvis de Montfort was a French knight who fought in the Albigensian Crusade and played a significant role in the capture of the city of Toulouse. A century later, Tarvis von Nürnberg was a renowned German artist and engraver whose works helped shape the Renaissance art movement in Germany.

Finally, in the 16th century, Tarvis Grantham was an English explorer and navigator who accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on several expeditions to the Americas. He is believed to have been one of the first Europeans to set foot in what is now the state of Virginia.

People

Tarvis + last name combinations

How many people share a full name with Tarvis 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

Tarvis: questions and answers

How many people in the U.S. are named Tarvis?

Name Census puts the figure at roughly 382 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tarvis 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 897,263 US residents.

Is Tarvis a common name?

We classify Tarvis as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 401 babies have been registered with this name.

When was Tarvis most popular?

The single biggest year for Tarvis was 1986, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tarvis is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.

Is Tarvis a male name?

Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tarvis 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.

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.

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