Avery
Feminine · “elf ruler”
Avery is given to both — 170,006 girls and 66,880 boys since 1880. See Avery as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Avery began as a medieval English name and spent centuries as a surname before coming back around to the front of the name — a round trip that most names never make. Its Germanic root, Alberich, is built from the words for elf and ruler, and it shares that root with Aubrey. Three easy syllables, or two if you say it quickly, and everyone within earshot can spell it.
How old is the name Avery?
Avery first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Avery is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 168,000 people named Avery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Avery most popular?
Avery peaked in 2013, reaching #12 nationally. Today it ranks #37, 25 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Where it comes from
From Alberich to Avery
The story of Avery
The Germanic name Alberich — alf, 'elf', plus ric, 'power' or 'ruler' — arrived in England with Norman French speakers, who had reshaped it into forms like Auberi and Auvrey. Those forms produced both Aubrey and Avery in medieval English use, and Avery then settled into an English family name carried down the generations. It crossed the Atlantic as a surname, and American parents did what they have long done with surnames: turned it back into a first name, at first mostly for boys. Girls' use came later and grew much faster, which is why the same spelling now runs both ways.
Meaning
elf ruler, from Germanic alf 'elf' and ric 'power, ruler'
Avery and Aubrey are two English outcomes of the same Germanic name, Alberich, which reached England through Norman French.
How the name formed
- Alberich
- Auberi
- Aubrey
- Avery
Related forms: Aubrey · Alberich · Alberico · Aubry · Alberico · Averie
Pronouncing Avery
AY-vuh-ree
Often compressed to two syllables, AYV-ree, in ordinary speech. Both are standard and no one will correct you.
Nicknames for Avery
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
- 1890
- Most girls named
- 20159,356 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #12reached in 2013
- Change vs 2023
- −10.4%5,267 in 2025, from 5,879
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.
Avery in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aubrey in English — related form
- Alberich in German — same name
- Alberico in Italian — same name
- Aubry in French — related form
- Alberico in Spanish — same name
- Averie in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Averys among us
people named Avery are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 305 born in 2025 was named Avery
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Christina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Avery's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christina climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christina's path sketches the road Avery is walking now.
Avery is coming down from a big peak (#12 in 2013). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Avery is headed
Avery should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Avery beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Avery in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling that almost everyone can write on first hearing, with no silent letters to explain.
- A documented line back to medieval England and, before that, to Germanic Alberich — the same root that gave Aubrey.
- Works for a son or a daughter without changing form, and is well established in both directions in American use.
- Also charts in Canada, so it travels without needing translation.
- Familiar to every ear while still unlikely to be doubled up in a classroom.
- Because most Averys are girls, a boy named Avery will meet assumptions on paper — forms, class lists, first emails. Nothing that a spoken introduction doesn't fix, but it happens repeatedly.
- Ava and Avery sit close together in sound and in current use, so expect the occasional mix-up between the two, and think about it before pairing them with a sibling name that starts the same way.
- Averie, Averi and Avry all exist as spellings, so you may sometimes be asked which one you meant.
- The name's wave is very recent, which means most people carrying it are still young — an adult Avery reads as unusual for now, though that shifts with every passing year.
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What they receive
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Avery
Feminine · #37 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Averys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 168,000 people named Avery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Avery in 2025?
- Avery ranks #37 among US girl names in 2025, with 5,267 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Avery?
- About 1 in every 305 US girls born in 2025 was named Avery — 5,267 in all.
- Will my child share the name Avery with classmates?
- Avery will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Avery
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Grace#38 · Layla#36 · Ivy#39 · Valentina#35 · Emily#34 · Madison#40 · Gianna#33 · Abigail#41
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Avery? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Avery and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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