Avis
Feminine · “bird on the Latin reading”
Avis is given to both — 17,224 girls and 818 boys since 1880. See Avis as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Avis looks like the Latin word for a bird, and that is the reading nearly everyone reaches for. The name's actual road into English is older and less tidy. It arrived with the Normans in a Germanic form, and the Latin bird attached itself centuries later, once the two spellings had met on the page.
How old is the name Avis?
Avis was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Avis alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 6,100 people named Avis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Avis most popular?
Avis peaked in 1912, reaching #238 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,970 places below that high. See the whole 1912 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aveza to Avis
The story of Avis
Medieval English records hold the name as Aveza, Avicia and Avice, brought over by Norman families after the Conquest and common enough by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to turn up in parish registers, wills and land rolls. Avice then wore down to Avis, dropping the c that the longer spelling had carried, and by the time anyone thought to explain the result, the Latin word for a bird was sitting there looking exactly like an answer. It is a good story and it is probably the wrong one. The name kept going regardless, steady in England and then in America, and it is one of very few medieval English women's names that never entirely went out of use.
Meaningscholars disagree
bird on the Latin reading; the Norman name behind it has no recovered sense
Two readings compete. The Latin avis, a bird and the root of aviary and aviation, is the one everybody knows and the one the spelling invites. The documented line, though, runs back through Avice and Aveza to a Norman-French rendering of a Germanic name whose meaning has not been recovered. The Latin reading is a later fit rather than a derivation, which has never stopped it being how most bearers understood their own name.
How the name formed
- Aveza
- Avicia
- Avice
- Avis
Related forms: Avice
Pronouncing Avis
AY-viss
Two syllables, stress in front, the s crisp rather than buzzed. Nobody hesitates over it on the page.
Nicknames for Avis
Limited
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1918429 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #238reached in 1912
- Change vs 2022
- −50.0%6 in 2025, from 12
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.
Avis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Avice in French — related form
Aviss among us
people named Avis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Avis
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Avis 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
Avis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Avis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has an unbroken documented history in English going back to the Norman period, which very few short women's names can claim.
- Two syllables, spelled as it sounds, and read correctly at first sight by everyone.
- The bird reading, late fit though it is, is a pleasant thing to carry and is not going anywhere.
- A car rental company has owned the word in American minds for two generations, and that is the first association most people will offer.
- This spelling goes mostly to girls but is recorded for boys as well, so a boy named Avis will meet the occasional wrong box on a form.
- In the United States it reads as a name of an older generation, which is either the appeal or the obstacle.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Avis
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aviss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,100 people named Avis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Avis in 2025?
- Avis ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Avis?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Avis — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Avis with classmates?
- Avis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Avis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Avis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Avis and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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