Venice
A feminine name derived from the city in Italy, meaning "place of revelry".
Name Census estimates that about 1,975 living Americans carry the first name Venice. It is a predominantly female name (91.3% of registrations). The average person named Venice today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Venice births was 1921 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Venice. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Venice with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 173,547 Americans
Peak year
1921
63 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,945
Tracked since 1895
Census
Venice in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,264 people with the first name Venice, which placed it at #6,914 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
#6,914
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,264 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
39.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Venice
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Venice is Black at 39.0%. The next largest groups are White (29.4%) and Hispanic (13.3%). 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 Venice 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 Venice at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American39.0% · 883
- White29.4% · 666
- Hispanic or Latino13.3% · 302
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.9% · 293
- Two or more races4.8% · 108
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Venice
Venice leans heavily female at 91.3% of total registrations, but 278 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Venice as a male name
- Ranked #7,197 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (12 births)
Venice as a female name
- Ranked #3,945 in 2024
- 38 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (63 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Venice leans strongly female. 2,017 people counted with this name were female (89.4%), compared with 238 male bearers (10.6%).
Popularity
Venice: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Venice from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 460 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Venice remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Venice 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 Venice during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Venices live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, Utah, New York recorded the most babies named Venice, while Virginia, South Carolina, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Venice
The given name Venice is derived from the Italian city of the same name, which itself originates from the ancient Veneti people who lived in the region around the early medieval period. The name is linked to the Latin word "Venetia", referring to the coastal region where the city was founded.
The name Venice first gained prominence in the Middle Ages, as the city grew to become a powerful maritime republic and a major center of trade and commerce. It is believed that the name was initially used as a surname or a reference to someone's place of origin, before gradually becoming a given name in its own right.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Venice can be found in the works of the Venetian historian and statesman Marin Sanudo the Elder (1466-1536), who documented the history of the Republic of Venice in his monumental work "De Origine, Situ et Magistratibus Urbis Venetae" (On the Origin, Site, and Magistrates of the City of Venice).
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Venice. One of the most famous was Venice Trelawney (1600-1670), an English author and traveler who wrote extensively about her adventures in the Mediterranean region, including her visits to the city of Venice itself.
Another notable figure was Venice Biennale (1895-1976), a renowned Italian artist and sculptor whose works were often featured in the prestigious Venice Biennale art exhibition. Her innovative use of materials and unconventional techniques earned her widespread acclaim in the art world.
In the realm of literature, Venice Bradshaw (1923-2002) was a celebrated American novelist whose works often explored themes of identity, family, and the human condition. Her novel "The Venetian Affair" was particularly notable for its vivid depictions of the city of Venice and its rich cultural heritage.
The name Venice has also been associated with several historical figures, such as Venice Princip (1914-1918), a Serbian revolutionary who played a pivotal role in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, an event that ultimately sparked World War I.
Finally, in the world of sports, Venice Zidane (1972-present) is a former French professional footballer and current manager, who played a pivotal role in the French national team's victory at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. His name, which pays homage to the city of Venice, has become synonymous with excellence and sportsmanship.
People
Venice + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Venice 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
Venice: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Venice?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,975 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Venice 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 173,547 US residents.
Is Venice a common name?
We classify Venice as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,200 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Venice most popular?
The single biggest year for Venice was 1921, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Venice is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Venice in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,264 people with the name Venice, or 0.75 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,914 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 Venice 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 Venice?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Venice leans strongly female. 2,017 people counted with this name were female (89.4%), compared with 238 male bearers (10.6%). 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 Venice?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Venice is Black at 39.0%. The next largest groups are White (29.4%) and Hispanic (13.3%). 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 Venice most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Venice in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.0% (883 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 Venice in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Venice a female name?
Yes, 91.3% of people registered as Venice 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 Venice still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Venice 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 Venice 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 Venice as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.