Victor
Masculine Latin name meaning "conqueror" or "victor".
Name Census estimates that about 245,014 living Americans carry the first name Victor. It sits at #214 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Victor today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Victor births was 1990 (4,472 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Victor. 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 Victor with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Victor is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,807 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
245K
~ 1 in 1,399 Americans
Peak year
1990
4,472 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#214
Tracked since 1880
Census
Victor in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 337,306 people with the first name Victor, which placed it at #148 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
#148
National first-name rank
People counted
337K
337,306 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
111.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
63.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Victor
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Victor is Hispanic at 63.6%. The next largest groups are White (22.7%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Victor 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 Victor at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino63.6% · 214,497
- White22.7% · 76,506
- Black or African American8.3% · 27,887
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 12,804
- Two or more races1.2% · 4,201
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1,411
Gender
Gender distribution for Victor
Out of the 330,536 babies given the name Victor since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Victor as a male name
- Ranked #214 in 2024
- 1,674 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (4,445 births)
Victor as a female name
- Ranked #18,705 in 2016
- 5 female births in 2016
- Peak: 1989 (43 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Victor appears almost entirely male. Of the 337,308 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Victor: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Victor from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 41,280 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Victor 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 Victor during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,242 | 0 | 1,242 |
| 1890s | 1,811 | 0 | 1,811 |
| 1900s | 2,447 | 5 | 2,452 |
| 1910s | 17,157 | 97 | 17,254 |
| 1920s | 21,498 | 178 | 21,676 |
| 1930s | 15,570 | 111 | 15,681 |
| 1940s | 22,520 | 97 | 22,617 |
| 1950s | 33,886 | 151 | 34,037 |
| 1960s | 36,824 | 240 | 37,064 |
| 1970s | 26,734 | 262 | 26,996 |
| 1980s | 32,290 | 328 | 32,618 |
| 1990s | 41,068 | 212 | 41,280 |
| 2000s | 40,685 | 91 | 40,776 |
| 2010s | 26,137 | 35 | 26,172 |
| 2020s | 8,860 | 0 | 8,860 |
Geography
Where Victors live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Victor, while Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,312 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Victor
The name Victor has its origins in the Latin word "victor" which means "conqueror" or "victor." It is believed to have been derived from the Latin verb "vincere" which means "to conquer" or "to overcome."
The name gained popularity in ancient Rome, where it was often given to military leaders or victorious generals as a way of celebrating their triumphs and victories on the battlefield. It was a name that carried a sense of strength, courage, and success.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Victor can be found in Roman historical records, where a Roman general named Gaius Julius Victor lived in the 1st century AD. He was known for his military conquests and victories against various barbarian tribes that threatened the Roman Empire.
In the Christian tradition, the name Victor is associated with several notable figures, including Saint Victor of Marseilles (c. 290-303 AD), a Roman soldier who was martyred for his Christian beliefs. Another notable figure was Victor of Vita (c. 430-490 AD), a historian who chronicled the persecution of Christians in North Africa during the Vandal invasion.
Throughout history, the name Victor has been borne by several influential individuals, including:
1. Victor Hugo (1802-1885), a renowned French novelist, poet, and playwright, best known for his works such as "Les Misérables" and "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame."
2. Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878), the first King of a united Italy, who played a pivotal role in the Italian unification movement.
3. Victor Fleming (1889-1949), an American film director best known for directing the classic film "Gone with the Wind."
4. Victor Frankenstein, the fictional character and protagonist in Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" (1818), who created a sentient being in a scientific experiment.
5. Victor Borge (1909-2000), a Danish-American comedian, conductor, and pianist, renowned for his unique blend of humor and classical music performances.
The name Victor has continued to be popular across various cultures and regions, carrying with it a sense of triumph, victory, and overcoming challenges.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Victor
People
Victor + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Victor 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
Victor: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Victor?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 245,014 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Victor 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 1,399 US residents.
Is Victor a common name?
We classify Victor as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 330,536 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Victor most popular?
The single biggest year for Victor was 1990, when 4,472 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Victor is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Victor in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 337,306 people with the name Victor, or 111.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #148 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 Victor 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 Victor?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Victor appears almost entirely male. Of the 337,308 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Victor?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Victor is Hispanic at 63.6%. The next largest groups are White (22.7%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Victor most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Victor in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.6% (214,497 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 Victor in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Victor a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Victor 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 Victor still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Victor 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 Victor 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 are named Victor?
Find out how many people have the name Victor on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.