Avary
Feminine · “elf-ruler”
Avary is given to both — 1,657 girls and 114 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Avary is Avery respelled, and Avery has one of the more surprising family trees in English naming: it descends from Alberich, the Germanic elf-king, by way of Norman French. The elf is genuinely in the etymology. Avary's peak is 2007, in the middle of Avery's own steep American rise.
How old is the name Avary?
Avary first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Avary alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 1,600 people named Avary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Avary most popular?
Avary peaked in 2007, reaching #1868 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 4,049 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Where it comes from
From Alberich to Avary
The story of Avary
Alberich came to England with the Normans in two forms, Aubrey and Avery, and both became surnames. Avery stayed a surname for centuries and became a given name in America in the twentieth century, first on boys and then, from the 1990s, overwhelmingly on girls — it reached the American top ten for girls in the 2010s. That is a complete reversal within thirty years and it is one of the fastest gender crossings in the record. Avary belongs to the respelling wave that followed, using the a-for-e substitution that also produced Kamryn from Cameron and Adalyn from Adeline.
Meaning
elf-ruler; elf-power
Germanic alf, 'elf', and ric, 'ruler, power', give Alberich — the dwarf-king of the Nibelung stories and a genuine early medieval personal name. Norman French wore it down to Auvery and Avery, and it survived in England as a surname. The same Germanic compound gives Aubrey by a slightly different route, so Avery and Aubrey are the same name arriving twice. The derivation is settled and appears in every standard reference.
How the name formed
- Alberich
- Auvery
- Avery
- Avary
Related forms: Avery · Aubrey · Alberich
Pronouncing Avary
AY-vuh-ree
Three syllables, stress on the first, with the middle reduced almost to nothing — which is why the a and e spellings sound identical. Many speakers compress it to two, AYV-ree.
Nicknames for Avary
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1990
- Most girls named
- 2007112 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1868reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- −9.1%20 in 2025, from 22
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Avary in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Avery in English — spelling variant
- Aubrey in English — related form
- Alberich in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Avarys among us
people named Avary are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Avary
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Avary
- #5917
- Avary on the 2025 chart
- #923
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Avary went to 20 girls in 2025, but Avari is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 37, which makes it the 923rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,994 places above the chart.
- Avary20
- Avari17
About 1 girl in 43,440 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 80,363 for Avary itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Toniann test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Avary's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Toniann climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Toniann's path sketches the road Avary is walking now.
Avary sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Avary beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Avary in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ava is a top-ten name available inside it as a short form.
- The etymology is settled and genuinely memorable — an elf and a ruler.
- The sound is universally familiar, so only the spelling is unusual.
- It will be corrected to Avery by essentially everyone writing it down.
- Avery is a top-ten girls' name, so distinctiveness exists only on paper.
- The middle vowel is unstressed, so the respelling changes nothing audible.
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What they receive
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Avary
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Avarys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Avary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Avary?
- Avary is the most-used spelling in US records — 20 of the 37 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Avari.
- How popular is the name Avary in 2025?
- Avary ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Avary?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Avary — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Avary with classmates?
- Avary will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Avary
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Avary? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Avary and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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