Yaniv
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "God will answer" or "He will answer".
Name Census estimates that about 267 living Americans carry the first name Yaniv. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yaniv today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yaniv births was 1985 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yaniv. 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.
People living today
267
~ 1 in 1,283,724 Americans
Peak year
1985
12 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2023 SSA rank
#14,103
Tracked since 1979
Census
Yaniv in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 664 people with the first name Yaniv, which placed it at #16,834 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
#16,834
National first-name rank
People counted
664
664 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yaniv
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yaniv is White at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.1%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Yaniv 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 Yaniv at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.0% · 571
- Hispanic or Latino8.1% · 54
- Two or more races2.7% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 10
- Black or African American1.4% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Yaniv: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yaniv from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 63 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Yaniv remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yaniv 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 Yaniv during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yanivs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yaniv
The name Yaniv is a Hebrew name with origins dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew root word "yavan," which means "Greece" or "Greek." This suggests that the name likely has connections to the historical interactions between the ancient Israelites and the Greek civilization.
One possible interpretation of the name Yaniv is that it refers to someone with Greek ancestry or cultural ties. In biblical times, the Greek empire had a significant influence on the region, and there were instances of cultural exchange and intermarriage between Greeks and Israelites.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Yaniv can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It appears in various historical records and documents from that era, indicating that it was in use among Jewish communities across Europe and the Middle East.
One notable figure with the name Yaniv was Yaniv ben Avitol, a Jewish scholar and poet who lived in Spain during the 11th century. He was renowned for his contributions to Hebrew poetry and literature, and some of his works have been preserved to this day.
Another prominent individual with the name Yaniv was Yaniv ben Gershon, a influential Jewish philosopher and commentator who lived in France during the 13th century. He wrote extensively on Jewish law and philosophy, and his works were widely studied and influential in their time.
In more recent history, Yaniv Iczkovits was an Israeli writer and journalist who lived from 1975 to 2021. He was known for his novels and short stories, which often explored themes of identity, culture, and the complexities of modern life in Israel.
Yaniv Lenga was an Israeli footballer who played as a midfielder for several clubs in Israel and Europe between 1999 and 2017. He also represented the Israeli national team, earning over 50 caps and participating in various international tournaments.
Yaniv Tuchman was an Israeli lawyer and legal scholar who lived from 1935 to 2018. He was a prominent figure in the field of constitutional law and served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2005.
People
Yaniv + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yaniv as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yaniv: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yaniv?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 267 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yaniv 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 1,283,724 US residents.
Is Yaniv a common name?
We classify Yaniv as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 273 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yaniv most popular?
The single biggest year for Yaniv was 1985, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yaniv is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yaniv in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 664 people with the name Yaniv, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,834 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 Yaniv 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 Yaniv?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yaniv appears almost entirely male. Of the 670 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Yaniv?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yaniv is White at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.1%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Yaniv most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yaniv in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.0% (571 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 Yaniv in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yaniv a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yaniv 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 Yaniv still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yaniv 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 Yaniv 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 Yaniv?
Want to know how many Americans are named Yaniv? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.