Verla
A feminine name derived from the French name Verlaine, meaning "bright bearer".
Name Census estimates that about 1,169 living Americans carry the first name Verla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Verla today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Verla births was 1922 (199 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Verla. 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
- • The typical person named Verla is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Verlas were born before 1958.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 293,203 Americans
Peak year
1922
199 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1983 SSA rank
#7,290
Tracked since 1890
Census
Verla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,059 people with the first name Verla, which placed it at #7,422 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
#7,422
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,059 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Verla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Verla is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Black (7.8%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Verla 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 Verla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 1,788
- Black or African American7.8% · 160
- Two or more races2.2% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 30
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 29
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 6
Popularity
Verla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Verla from the 1890s through to the 1980s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,779 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Verla 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 Verla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Verlas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Iowa, Illinois, Idaho recorded the most babies named Verla, while South Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 116 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Verla
The name Verla is believed to have originated from the German language. It is a feminine name derived from the Old German word "vert," which means "journey" or "travel." The name first emerged in the medieval period, around the 10th or 11th century, and was predominantly used in Germanic regions of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Verla can be found in the Codex Traditionum Corbeiensium, a medieval manuscript from the 9th century that documented land transactions and property records in the region of Westphalia, Germany. The manuscript includes the name "Verla" listed as a landowner or tenant.
In the 12th century, a notable figure named Verla von Münster was a prominent abbess and historian who lived in the city of Münster, Germany. She authored several chronicles and historical accounts of the region during her lifetime, which spanned from approximately 1130 to 1205.
During the Renaissance period, a Italian painter named Verla Alberti (1472-1553) gained recognition for her religious artwork and frescoes adorning churches in Florence and Rome. Her works were highly regarded for their intricate details and vibrant colors.
In the 17th century, Verla Baumeister (1614-1688) was a German botanist and herbalist known for her extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and their applications. She published several influential books on the subject, which were widely circulated throughout Europe.
Another noteworthy individual with the name Verla was the French poet and novelist Verla Durand (1789-1867), who wrote several acclaimed works during the Romantic era. Her poetry often explored themes of nature, love, and the human experience.
While the name Verla has its roots in German origins, it has been used across various cultures and regions throughout history, although it has never been an extremely common or popular name in any particular area.
People
Verla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Verla 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
Verla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Verla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,169 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Verla 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 293,203 US residents.
Is Verla a common name?
We classify Verla as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,190 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Verla most popular?
The single biggest year for Verla was 1922, when 199 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Verla is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Verla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,059 people with the name Verla, or 0.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,422 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 Verla 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 Verla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Verla appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,056 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Verla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Verla is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Black (7.8%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Verla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Verla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (1,788 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 Verla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Verla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Verla 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 Verla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Verla 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 Verla 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 share the name Verla?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.