Denver
Masculine · Old English roots · “crossing or passage of the Danes”
Denver is given to both — 19,178 boys and 4,235 girls since 1880. See Denver as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Denver began as a small village in Norfolk, England — a crossing point on the fens whose name records the Danes who used it. From there it became a surname, then traveled west with English settlers, and eventually gave its name to the city in Colorado. Two syllables, one stress, and no one in America has to be told how to say it.
How old is the name Denver?
Denver was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Denver alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 13,500 people named Denver are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Denver most popular?
Denver peaked in 1919, reaching #422 nationally. Today it ranks #518, 96 places below that high. See the whole 1919 chart.
Denver appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Dena fær (Old English) to Denver
The story of Denver
The oldest Denver is a place: a village in the Norfolk fens of eastern England, named for a crossing used by Danish settlers. English place names of that kind hardened into family names, and the surname Denver crossed the Atlantic with its bearers. In 1858 a settlement in the Colorado gold country was named for James W. Denver, then governor of Kansas Territory, and the city eventually eclipsed the village in the public mind. The given name follows the well-worn American habit of lifting a surname — or a place on the map — and handing it to a child.
Meaning
crossing or passage of the Danes
From Old English Dena (of the Danes) plus a word for a crossing or ford, describing the Norfolk village of Denver. The American city carries the surname of James W. Denver, governor of Kansas Territory, rather than the meaning directly.
How the name formed
- Dena færOld English
- Denvervillage in Norfolk
- DenverEnglish surname
- Denvergiven name
Pronouncing Denver
DEN-ver
Stress on the first syllable. The city means almost no American will hesitate over it, and English speakers elsewhere manage it without instruction.
Nicknames for Denver
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2022645 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #422reached in 1919
- Change vs 2022
- −10.4%578 in 2025, from 645
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.
Denver in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, Georgia.
Denvers among us
people named Denver are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,955 born in 2025 was named Denver
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 Jewell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Denver's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jewell climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jewell's path sketches the road Denver is walking now.
Denver 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 Denver is headed
Denver 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.
Denver beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Denver in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling, one pronunciation, and a city on every US map to anchor both — it will rarely need to be spelled out or repeated.
- A documented line running from a Norfolk village to an English surname to an American given name, rather than a recent invention.
- Given quietly and consistently across many generations, so it reads as neither dated nor newly minted.
- Used for both boys and girls without changing form, so nothing about the name itself needs adjusting.
- Established short forms exist — Den, Denny — for anyone who wants one.
- The city dominates the association. Expect a lifetime of people asking whether the family has Colorado ties, and the occasional question about the singer who took the city's name as his own.
- It leans toward boys without settling there. A girl named Denver will meet forms and teachers who assume otherwise — easily corrected, but it will recur.
- Denny, the friendliest short form, is more commonly attached to Dennis, so it may invite that name as a guess.
- Place names are read as choices in a way that traditional given names are not; some people will hear a story behind it whether or not there is one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Denver to the vote.
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What they receive
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Denver
Masculine · Old English roots · #518 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Denvers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,500 people named Denver are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Denver in 2025?
- Denver ranks #518 among US boy names in 2025, with 578 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Denver?
- About 1 in every 2,955 US boys born in 2025 was named Denver — 578 in all.
- Will my child share the name Denver with classmates?
- Denver will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Denver
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kobe#518 · Truett#518 · Lawrence#518 · Callen#516 · Marcos#516 · Moses#515 · Tripp#522 · Frank#513
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Denver? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Denver and another name?
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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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