Avi
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “my father" (Hebrew)”
Avi is given to both — 6,087 boys and 834 girls since 1880. See Avi as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Avi is a Hebrew name in the plainest sense — two syllables, four letters, and a word you can read straight off the page: *avi*, "my father." It sits at the front of a whole family of older Hebrew names, Avraham and Aviel and Avner among them, and in twentieth-century Israel it stepped out of that shadow to stand on its own. It has also arrived in American classrooms by a second road entirely, as the everyday short form of Indian names like Avinash and Avik.
How old is the name Avi?
Avi first appears in US birth records in 1949 — 76 years ago. The typical Avi is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 6,000 people named Avi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Avi most popular?
Avi peaked in 2022, reaching #720 nationally. Today it ranks #832, 112 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Avi appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From av (Hebrew, "father") to Avi
The story of Avi
The root is old and unambiguous: Hebrew *av*, father, one of the most productive elements in the language's stock of names. For centuries Avi was not a name but a way of saying one — how you addressed an Avraham or an Avishai at home. In modern Israel that habit hardened into a standalone name, and Avi became one of the ordinary, unremarkable men's names of the mid-twentieth century there, on ID cards as well as in kitchens. Separately, and with no connection to the Hebrew, speakers of Hindi and other Indian languages clip Avinash, Aviral and Avik down to Avi — which is why the same four letters reach American schools from two directions at once.
Meaning
"my father" (Hebrew)
The Hebrew element *av*, "father," with the possessive ending — the same *av* that opens Avraham, Aviel ("God is my father") and Avner ("my father is light"). Avi began as the short form of those names and became a given name in its own right.
How the name formed
- avHebrew, "father"
- Avraham / Aviel / Avner
- Avi
Related forms: אֲבִי · Avraham · Aviel · Abie · Avinash
Pronouncing Avi
AH-vee
AH-vee is the usual American pronunciation. In Hebrew the stress falls on the second syllable, a-VEE. A few English speakers guess AY-vee on first sight, so expect to correct that now and then.
Nicknames for Avi
Moderate
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
- 1949
- Most boys named
- 2022366 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #720reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +2.4%297 in 2025, from 290
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.
Avi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אֲבִי in Hebrew — transliteration
- Avraham in Hebrew — related form
- Aviel in Hebrew — related form
- Abie in English — related form
- Avinash in Hindi — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, New Jersey.
Avis among us
people named Avi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,751 born in 2025 was named Avi
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 Alexandro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Avi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alexandro climbed just as high around 2002, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alexandro's path sketches the road Avi is walking now.
Avi 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
Where Avi is headed
Avi should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Avi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Avi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and hard to misspell once heard — four letters, no silent parts, no competing spellings in wide use.
- Works as a full name and as a ready-made short form, so an Avi never needs shortening and can be lengthened to Avraham or Aviel if wanted.
- At home in more than one language community — Hebrew, Israeli everyday use, and Indian naming alike — which travels well.
- The root element *av* has been in continuous use in Hebrew names for millennia, so the name rests on a very long record.
- Two pronunciations circulate in English, AH-vee and AY-vee, and the spelling does not settle the question. Most Avis do a small amount of correcting for life.
- Because it began as a short form, people sometimes ask what it's short for. If you intend Avi as the whole name, expect to say so on forms and at introductions.
- It is familiar in some American communities and genuinely new to others — a child may be the only one anyone has met locally, while being one of many at a family gathering.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Avi
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #832 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Avis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,000 people named Avi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Avi in 2025?
- Avi ranks #832 among US boy names in 2025, with 297 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Avi?
- About 1 in every 5,751 US boys born in 2025 was named Avi — 297 in all.
- Will my child share the name Avi with classmates?
- Avi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Avi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rayden#832 · Roger#832 · Kaiser#835 · Bjorn#829 · Cayson#835 · Jefferson#829 · Ignacio#829 · Dakari#837
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Avi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Avi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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