Val
Short for Valerie, a feminine name of French origin meaning "valiant, vigorous".
Name Census estimates that about 4,382 living Americans carry the first name Val. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Val today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Val births was 1956 (253 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Val. 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
4.4K
~ 1 in 78,219 Americans
Peak year
1956
253 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,622
Tracked since 1882
Census
Val in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,620 people with the first name Val, which placed it at #2,957 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
#2,957
National first-name rank
People counted
7.6K
7,620 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Val
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Val is White at 69.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) and Black (9.9%). 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 Val 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 Val at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.8% · 5,321
- Hispanic or Latino10.9% · 831
- Black or African American9.9% · 757
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 422
- Two or more races2.6% · 196
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 93
Gender
Gender distribution for Val
Val is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 7,383 total registrations, 5,634 (76.3%) were male and 1,749 (23.7%) were female.
Val as a male name
- Ranked #5,622 in 2024
- 17 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1952 (178 births)
Val as a female name
- Ranked #15,072 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1958 (110 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Val on both sides of the split. Of the 7,617 people counted with this name, 4,491 were male (59.0%) and 3,126 were female (41.0%).
Popularity
Val: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Val from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 2,178 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Val 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 Val during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vals live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. Utah, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Val, while Wyoming, Wisconsin, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 120 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Val
The name Val originates from the Latin word "valens," which means "strong" or "vigorous." It has been a popular name throughout history, with roots dating back to ancient Rome.
Val was a common name among Roman soldiers and warriors, reflecting the strength and valor associated with its meaning. It was often given to boys born into military families or those destined for a life of combat.
In the early Christian era, the name Val gained further significance as a shortened version of the name Valerian, derived from the Latin word "valere," meaning "to be strong" or "to be well." Valerian was the name of several early Christian saints and martyrs, including Saint Valerian, who was martyred in the 3rd century AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Val can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus, who mentioned a Roman general named Valerius in his Annals, written around 109 AD.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Val remained popular across Europe, particularly in regions with strong Roman or Latin influences. Many notable figures bore this name, including Val III, Count of Barcelona, who ruled the County of Barcelona from 1010 to 1017.
During the Renaissance, the name Val experienced a resurgence in popularity, as the humanist movement revived interest in classical Latin names. One of the most famous bearers of this name was the Italian painter and architect Valerio Belli, known as Valerio Vicentino, who lived from 1468 to 1546.
In the 17th century, the name Val gained prominence in England, where it was sometimes used as a diminutive form of the name Valentine. One notable figure from this period was Val Gideon, an English mathematician and astronomer who lived from 1633 to 1707.
The 19th century saw the name Val spread to other parts of the world, particularly in the United States. One of the most famous Americans with this name was Val Kilmer, the acclaimed actor known for his roles in films such as "Top Gun" and "Batman Forever." He was born in 1959 and is still active in the entertainment industry.
Other notable historical figures named Val include Val Logsdon Fitch, the American nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980, and Val Lewton, the influential American filmmaker and producer known for his work in the horror genre during the 1940s.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Val
People
Val + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Val as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Val: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Val?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,382 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Val 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 78,219 US residents.
Is Val a common name?
We classify Val as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,383 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Val most popular?
The single biggest year for Val was 1956, when 253 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Val is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Val in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,620 people with the name Val, or 2.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,957 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 Val 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 Val?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Val on both sides of the split. Of the 7,617 people counted with this name, 4,491 were male (59.0%) and 3,126 were female (41.0%). 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 Val?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Val is White at 69.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) and Black (9.9%). 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 Val most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Val in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.8% (5,321 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 Val in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Val a male name?
Yes, 76.3% of people registered as Val 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 Val still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Val 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 Val 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 Val as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Val, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.