Carver
Masculine · “One who carves”
Carver is given to both — 3,161 boys and 102 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Carver began as a job title in medieval England — the man who cut shapes into wood and stone, or who carved the meat at a great household's table. It came to America as a surname and only later moved to the front of the name, joining the long English habit of turning trades into first names. Two syllables, both plain, and no one has to ask how it is spelled.
How old is the name Carver?
Carver first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Carver is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,900 people named Carver are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carver most popular?
Carver peaked in 2015, reaching #1271 nationally. Today it ranks #1499, 228 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Middle English kerver / carver (a trade word) to Carver
The story of Carver
Carver is an English occupational surname, formed the same way as Fletcher, Baxter and Thatcher — from what a man did for a living. In Middle English a kerver or carver worked wood and stone, the trade behind church screens, roof bosses and choir stalls; the word also named a household office, the man who carved the meat before the lord. Families carrying the name crossed to New England and elsewhere in the colonial period, and Carver stayed steadily in the American surname pool for centuries — borne, among others, by the agricultural scientist George Washington Carver. Its use as a given name is a much later chapter, part of the broad American turn toward surnames at the front of the name.
Meaningscholars disagree
One who carves — a carver of wood or stone
The main reading is the occupational one: Middle English kerver / carver, someone who carved wood or stone, and in great households the officer who carved meat at table. Scholars of English surnames record a second possible source in Norman French carvier, 'ploughman'. The carving trade is the reading almost everyone gives it today.
How the name formed
- Middle English kerver / carvera trade word
- CarverEnglish surname
- CarverAmerican given name
Pronouncing Carver
KAR-ver
Stress on the first syllable, exactly like the English word carver. In non-rhotic accents the r's soften but the shape stays the same.
Nicknames for Carver
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 2018143 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1271reached in 2015
- Change vs 2023
- −7.9%117 in 2025, from 127
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.
Carver in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Iowa, Texas, North Carolina.
Carvers among us
people named Carver are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,599 born in 2025 was named Carver
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carver
- #1499
- Carver on the 2025 chart
- #792
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carver went to 117 boys in 2025, but Karver is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 136, which makes it the 792nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 707 places above the chart.
- Carver117
- Karver19
About 1 boy in 12,559 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 14,599 for Carver 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 Travion test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carver's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Travion climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Travion's path sketches the road Carver is walking now.
Carver 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 Carver is headed
Carver 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.
Carver beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carver in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds — it is an ordinary English word, so it survives phone calls, forms and roll calls without correction.
- A documented English surname with centuries of unbroken record behind it, not a recent coinage.
- Two syllables with clear first-syllable stress, which sits easily beside most one- and two-syllable surnames.
- Fits the established American pattern of trade surnames used as first names, so it reads as familiar even where it is rarely met.
- It is one letter from Carter, a far more familiar name, and will sometimes be heard or written that way. Most Carvers get used to repeating it once.
- The word meaning is close to the surface. Expect carving-knife and Thanksgiving jokes, especially in the teen years.
- Its use as a first name is recent, so nearly everyone who carries it is young. An adult Carver still reads to many ears as a surname first.
- Uptake is uneven across the country, heavier in parts of the Midwest and South than elsewhere — familiarity will depend a lot on where the child grows up.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Carver
Masculine · #1499 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carvers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Carver are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carver?
- Carver is the most-used spelling in US records — 117 of the 136 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Karver.
- How popular is the name Carver in 2025?
- Carver ranks #1499 among US boy names in 2025, with 117 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carver?
- About 1 in every 14,599 US boys born in 2025 was named Carver — 117 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carver with classmates?
- Carver will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carver
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Clarence#1499 · Kyzer#1499 · Lazaro#1499 · Hakeem#1499 · Merritt#1499 · Zeppelin#1499 · Decker#1499 · Randall#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carver? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carver and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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