Yuriy
Of Slavic origin, meaning "farmer" or "son of the farm".
Name Census estimates that about 200 living Americans carry the first name Yuriy. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yuriy today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yuriy births was 2001 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yuriy. 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
200
~ 1 in 1,713,772 Americans
Peak year
2001
16 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,173
Tracked since 1996
Popularity
Yuriy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yuriy from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 88 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yuriy 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 Yuriy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yuriy
The given name Yuriy has its origins in the Slavic languages, particularly Russian and Ukrainian. It is a derivative of the Greek name Georgios, which means "farmer" or "earth-worker." The name can be traced back to the Byzantine era, around the 4th century AD, when it was widely adopted by Eastern Slavic peoples.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Yuriy can be found in the Primary Chronicle, an ancient Russian literary work written in the 12th century. The chronicle recounts the life of Yuriy Dolgorukiy, a prominent prince of Kievan Rus' who ruled in the mid-12th century.
In the Byzantine Empire, the name Yuriy was associated with several notable figures, including Yuriy of Amastris, a 9th-century saint and martyr, and Yuriy Tsamblak, a 14th-century Bulgarian writer and theologian.
During the medieval period, the name Yuriy gained popularity in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Ukraine. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Yuriy Danilovych, a 13th-century Grand Prince of Moscow, who played a significant role in the consolidation of the Muscovite state.
Another prominent figure in history with the name Yuriy was Yuriy Dolgorukiy (1099-1157), a Grand Prince of Kiev and the founder of Moscow. He was instrumental in the expansion of the Kievan Rus' territory and the establishment of the city of Moscow.
In the 16th century, Yuriy Krizhanich (1617-1683), a Croatian Catholic priest and philosopher, made significant contributions to the development of the Russian language and literature.
The name Yuriy has also been associated with several notable military leaders throughout history, including Yuriy Khmelnitski (1641-1685), a Ukrainian Cossack leader who played a crucial role in the struggle for Ukrainian independence from Poland.
Additionally, Yuriy Gagarin (1934-1968), a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first human to journey into outer space when he orbited the Earth in the Vostok 1 spacecraft in 1961.
People
Yuriy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yuriy 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
Yuriy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yuriy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 200 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yuriy 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 1,713,772 US residents.
Is Yuriy a common name?
We classify Yuriy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 202 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yuriy most popular?
The single biggest year for Yuriy was 2001, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yuriy is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Yuriy a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yuriy 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.
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.