Verta
An invented name with no clear meaning or etymology.
Name Census estimates that about 197 living Americans carry the first name Verta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Verta today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Verta births was 1922 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Verta. 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 Verta is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Vertas were born before 1958.
People living today
197
~ 1 in 1,739,870 Americans
Peak year
1922
33 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1972 SSA rank
#8,253
Tracked since 1887
Census
Verta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 399 people with the first name Verta, which placed it at #24,220 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
#24,220
National first-name rank
People counted
399
399 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Verta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Verta is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Black (32.8%) and Hispanic (26.1%). 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 Verta 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 Verta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.8% · 147
- Black or African American32.8% · 131
- Hispanic or Latino26.1% · 104
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 8
- Two or more races1.8% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Popularity
Verta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Verta from the 1880s through to the 1970s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 261 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
Verta 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 Verta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vertas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Alabama recorded the most babies named Verta, while Oklahoma, Illinois, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Verta
The name Verta is thought to have its origins in the Sanskrit language, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that flourished in the Indian subcontinent from around the 2nd millennium BCE to the 6th century CE. The name is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit word "vartah," meaning "path" or "way." This linguistic root suggests that the name Verta may have been associated with ideas of guidance, direction, or a journey.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Verta can be found in the ancient Hindu scripture known as the Mahabharata. This epic poem, composed between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE, mentions a character named Verta who played a minor role in the narrative. While little is known about this character, their inclusion in such a significant literary work underscores the antiquity of the name.
In the 4th century BCE, a Greek philosopher named Verta of Tarsus lived and taught in the city of Tarsus, located in modern-day Turkey. Verta was a follower of the Stoic school of philosophy and is credited with writing several treatises on ethics and logic, though only fragments of these works survive today.
During the medieval period, a notable figure named Verta lived in the 11th century CE. Verta of Constance was a German theologian and philosopher who taught at the cathedral school in Constance, a city in present-day Germany. He is best known for his writings on the nature of the soul and the relationship between faith and reason.
In the 14th century, a poet and mystic named Verta Bhāratī flourished in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. Bhāratī was a prominent figure in the Bhakti movement, a spiritual renaissance that emphasized devotional worship and the pursuit of divine love. Her poetic compositions, written in the Hindi language, continue to be widely studied and revered within certain Hindu traditions.
A more recent historical figure bearing the name Verta was Verta Hawkins Spinelli, an American writer and educator who lived from 1929 to 2016. Spinelli was a pioneer in the field of children's literature and authored numerous books for young readers, including the popular "Tooter Pepperday" series. Her works often explored themes of friendship, family, and overcoming adversity.
People
Verta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Verta 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
Verta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Verta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 197 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Verta 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 1,739,870 US residents.
Is Verta a common name?
We classify Verta as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,093 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Verta most popular?
The single biggest year for Verta was 1922, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Verta 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 Verta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 399 people with the name Verta, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,220 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 Verta 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 Verta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Verta leans strongly female. 389 people counted with this name were female (99.0%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.0%). 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 Verta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Verta is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Black (32.8%) and Hispanic (26.1%). 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 Verta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Verta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.8% (147 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 Verta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Verta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Verta 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 Verta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Verta 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 Verta 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 Americans are named Verta?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.