Yvette
A feminine form of a Germanic name meaning "yew wood".
Name Census estimates that about 52,660 living Americans carry the first name Yvette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Yvette today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yvette births was 1967 (2,754 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yvette. 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 Yvette with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Yvette is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 186 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Yvette have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
53K
~ 1 in 6,509 Americans
Peak year
1967
2,754 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
1994 SSA rank
#1,616
Tracked since 1898
Census
Yvette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 53,502 people with the first name Yvette, which placed it at #855 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
#855
National first-name rank
People counted
54K
53,502 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
17.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
41.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yvette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yvette is Hispanic at 41.7%. The next largest groups are Black (30.4%) and White (22.4%). 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 Yvette 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 Yvette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino41.7% · 22,284
- Black or African American30.4% · 16,244
- White22.4% · 11,996
- Two or more races2.4% · 1,299
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 1,237
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 442
Gender
Gender distribution for Yvette
Out of the 64,104 babies given the name Yvette since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Yvette as a male name
- Ranked #10,224 in 1994
- 5 male births in 1994
- Peak: 1968 (15 births)
Yvette as a female name
- Ranked #1,616 in 2024
- 129 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1967 (2,743 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yvette appears almost entirely female. Of the 53,499 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Yvette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yvette from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 22,162 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yvette 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 Yvette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yvettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Yvette, while Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,188 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yvette
The name Yvette has its origins in the French language and was derived from the Germanic name Ivo or Yvo, which means "yew wood" or "archer." This name gained popularity in France during the Middle Ages.
Yvette is a diminutive form of the name Yvonne, which is the feminine version of Yvon, the French form of the name Ivo. The earliest recorded use of the name Yvette dates back to the 12th century in France.
One of the earliest historical references to the name Yvette can be found in the medieval French epic poem "La Chanson de Roland" (The Song of Roland), written around the late 11th century. In this poem, a character named Yvette is mentioned as the wife of a nobleman.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Yvette. One of the earliest recorded was Yvette de Navarre (c. 1195-1233), a French noblewoman and the daughter of Sancho VII of Navarre.
Another famous Yvette was Yvette Guilbert (1867-1944), a French singer and actress who was a prominent figure in the Parisian cabaret scene of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was known for her distinctive vocal style and performances of chanson réaliste (realist song).
Yvette Chauviré (1917-2016) was a renowned French ballerina who danced with the Paris Opera Ballet and was celebrated for her technical precision and artistry. She was named a Prima Ballerina Assoluta, one of the highest honors in ballet.
Yvette Mimieux (1942-2022) was an American actress and author, known for her roles in films such as "The Time Machine" (1960) and "Light in the Piazza" (1962). She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the latter.
Yvette Brind'Amour (1918-2015) was a Canadian singer and actress who had a successful career in both English and French-language productions. She was awarded the Order of Canada in recognition of her contributions to the arts.
Overall, the name Yvette has a rich history rooted in French and Germanic origins, with its earliest recorded use dating back to the Middle Ages. It has been borne by notable individuals across various fields, including nobility, performing arts, and literature.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Yvette
People
Yvette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yvette 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
Yvette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yvette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 52,660 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yvette 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 6,509 US residents.
Is Yvette a common name?
We classify Yvette as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 64,104 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yvette most popular?
The single biggest year for Yvette was 1967, when 2,754 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yvette is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yvette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 53,502 people with the name Yvette, or 17.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #855 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 Yvette 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 Yvette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yvette appears almost entirely female. Of the 53,499 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Yvette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yvette is Hispanic at 41.7%. The next largest groups are Black (30.4%) and White (22.4%). 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 Yvette most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yvette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.7% (22,284 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 Yvette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yvette a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Yvette 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 Yvette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yvette 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 Yvette 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 Yvette?
Want to know how many Americans are named Yvette? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.