Vallee
A French name derived from the word vallée, meaning "valley".
Name Census estimates that about 42 living Americans carry the first name Vallee. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Vallee today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vallee births was 2024 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vallee. 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 Vallee. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
42
~ 1 in 8,160,818 Americans
Peak year
2024
14 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
1938 SSA rank
#3,513
Tracked since 1934
Census
Vallee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 110 people with the first name Vallee, which placed it at #51,979 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
#51,979
National first-name rank
People counted
110
110 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vallee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vallee is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Black (22.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.6%). 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 Vallee 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 Vallee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.2% · 75
- Black or African American22.7% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 4
- Two or more races3.6% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Vallee
Vallee leans heavily female at 88.7% of total registrations, but 6 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Vallee as a male name
- Ranked #3,513 in 1938
- 6 male births in 1938
- Peak: 1938 (6 births)
Vallee as a female name
- Ranked #7,896 in 2024
- 14 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Vallee on both sides of the split. Of the 109 people counted with this name, 27 were male (24.8%) and 82 were female (75.2%).
Popularity
Vallee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vallee from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 37 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
Vallee 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 Vallee 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 Vallee
The name Vallee is of French origin and dates back to the 13th century. It is derived from the Old French word "val," meaning valley or vale. The name likely originated as a descriptive surname, given to someone who lived in or near a valley.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vallee can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a historical record of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The name appears as "de Vallee," indicating a person hailing from a valley.
In the 14th century, the name Vallee appeared in various French literary works, such as the Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. This suggests that the name was well-established in France during the Middle Ages.
Among notable historical figures with the first name Vallee, we can mention:
1. Vallee de Viriville (1790-1863), a French historian and archivist who specialized in the history of medieval France.
2. Vallee Poussin (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician and physicist best known for his work on theoretical physics and the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics.
3. Vallee Schjelderup-Ebbe (1847-1913), a Norwegian zoologist and pioneer in the study of animal behavior and social hierarchies.
4. Vallee Poussin (1890-1971), a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and theologian who played a significant role in the Second Vatican Council.
5. Vallee Fitz-Gerald (1823-1886), an Irish-American author and lawyer who served as a Confederate officer during the American Civil War.
While the name Vallee may have originated as a locational surname, it eventually transitioned into a given name, particularly in French-speaking regions. Its association with valleys and natural landscapes has contributed to its enduring appeal throughout history.
People
Vallee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vallee 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
Vallee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vallee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 42 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vallee 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 8,160,818 US residents.
Is Vallee a common name?
We classify Vallee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 51.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 53 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vallee most popular?
The single biggest year for Vallee was 2024, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vallee is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vallee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 110 people with the name Vallee, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,979 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 Vallee 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 Vallee?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Vallee on both sides of the split. Of the 109 people counted with this name, 27 were male (24.8%) and 82 were female (75.2%). 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 Vallee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vallee is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Black (22.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.6%). 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 Vallee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vallee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.2% (75 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 Vallee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vallee a female name?
Yes, 88.7% of people registered as Vallee in the SSA data are female. 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 Vallee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vallee 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 Vallee 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 Vallee?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Vallee, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.