Yves
A French name of Old German/Frisian origin meaning "archer" or "bowman".
Name Census estimates that about 1,146 living Americans carry the first name Yves. It is a predominantly male name (95.9% of registrations). The average person named Yves today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yves births was 1985 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yves. 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 Yves with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 299,088 Americans
Peak year
1985
37 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,423
Tracked since 1916
Census
Yves in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,546 people with the first name Yves, which placed it at #4,198 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
#4,198
National first-name rank
People counted
4.5K
4,546 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
67.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yves
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yves is Black at 67.0%. The next largest groups are White (23.3%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Yves 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 Yves at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American67.0% · 3,045
- White23.3% · 1,058
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 210
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 146
- Two or more races1.9% · 85
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Yves
Yves leans heavily male at 95.9% of total registrations, but 50 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Yves as a male name
- Ranked #5,423 in 2024
- 18 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (37 births)
Yves as a female name
- Ranked #15,182 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yves leans strongly male. 4,203 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 340 female bearers (7.5%).
Popularity
Yves: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yves from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 278 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Yves remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yves 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 Yves during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yves' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. New York, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Yves, while New Jersey, Georgia, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 64 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yves
The name Yves originated from the French form of the ancient Germanic name Ivo. It is derived from the words "iv" meaning yew, and "vig" meaning vigor or strength. This name has been in use since at least the 9th century in parts of Western Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Yves can be found in the historical record of a Breton bishop and saint, Yves Hélori, who lived from 1253 to 1303. He was known for his piety, charitable works, and defense of the poor against the oppression of the nobility.
Another notable figure in history with the name Yves was Yves de Chartres, a French theologian and philosopher who lived from around 1040 to 1115. He was a prominent teacher and writer during the scholastic period and his works influenced the development of medieval philosophy and theology.
In the 17th century, Yves Boucherat (1630-1726) was a prominent French jurist and statesman who served as the Chancellor of France under Louis XIV. He is remembered for his efforts to reform and modernize the French legal system.
Moving into the 19th century, Yves Menard (1807-1858) was a French poet and novelist who was part of the Romantic movement. His works, such as "Rêveries d'un païen mystique" (Reveries of a Mystic Pagan), explored themes of nature, spirituality, and mythology.
Another notable figure with the name Yves was Yves Tanguy (1900-1955), a French surrealist painter known for his unique and imaginative landscapes featuring strange, biomorphic forms and dreamlike imagery. His works are considered influential in the development of surrealism in art.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Yves, which has a rich heritage rooted in ancient European cultures and has been carried by notable individuals across various fields throughout history.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Yves
People
Yves + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yves 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
Yves: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yves?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,146 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yves 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 299,088 US residents.
Is Yves a common name?
We classify Yves as "Rare". It ranks above 91% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,234 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yves most popular?
The single biggest year for Yves was 1985, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yves is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yves in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,546 people with the name Yves, or 1.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,198 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 Yves 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 Yves?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yves leans strongly male. 4,203 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 340 female bearers (7.5%). 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 Yves?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yves is Black at 67.0%. The next largest groups are White (23.3%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Yves most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Yves in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.0% (3,045 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 Yves in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yves a male name?
Yes, 95.9% of people registered as Yves 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 Yves still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yves 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 Yves 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 Yves?
Want to know how many Americans are named Yves? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.