Irvine
Masculine
Irvine is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 899 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Irvine is a Scottish name that has been carried further than most — to a family that held its land from a king's own hand, and to a California city that grew out of a single enormous ranch.
How old is the name Irvine?
Irvine first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Irvine alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 300 people named Irvine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Irvine most popular?
Irvine peaked in 1905, reaching #786 nationally. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Irvine
The Scottish family's story is unusually well documented. An Irvine is said to have been armor-bearer to Robert the Bruce, and to have been given the forest of Drum for it; the charter survives, the family held the land for six centuries, and the tower they built is still standing. The American half is a different kind of empire. A Belfast-born immigrant named Irvine bought out his partners in a California ranch that eventually covered something like a fifth of Orange County — a hundred thousand acres of cattle and citrus — and when the land was finally developed in the middle of the last century the planned city built on it took his name. A county in Scotland and a county in California, one surname.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name comes from a place in Ayrshire and the place takes its name from its river, whose own name is older than any language now spoken in Scotland. That is as far back as anyone can go: the river name is pre-Gaelic and nobody has recovered what it meant.
Pronouncing Irvine
UR-vine
Two syllables, stress at the front. The Scottish town is said the same way; the California city has kept the pronunciation intact.
Nicknames for Irvine
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 191530 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #786reached in 1905
- Change vs 2001
- 0.0%6 in 2006, from 6
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.
Irvines among us
people named Irvine are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Irvine sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a real place name with a documented history on two continents.
- The short form is friendly and has been in use for generations.
- It is rare as a first name while being entirely familiar as a word.
- Irving is far more common as a first name and his will be written that way.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- For many Americans the name is a city before it is a person.
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Irvine
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Irvines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Irvine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Irvine in 2025?
- Irvine is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Irvine with classmates?
- Irvine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More I names
The most-given names starting with I, all years combined.
Isaac#47 · Ian#83 · Isaiah#57 · Ivan#162 · Israel#315 · Ira#819 · Irving#1778 · Ismael#263
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Irvine? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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