Ivon
Feminine · “Yew”
Ivon is given to both — 1,156 girls and 580 boys since 1880. See Ivon as a boy nameSee other names given to both
The saint at the head of this name was a lawyer who took cases for people who could not pay. Ivo of Kermartin was a Breton judge and then a parish priest who spent his life representing the poor in court, and he is the patron of lawyers on the strength of it, which is a joke the profession has never quite lived down.
How old is the name Ivon?
Ivon first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Ivon alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 1,000 people named Ivon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ivon most popular?
Ivon peaked in 1997, reaching #2511 nationally. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ivo to Ivon
The story of Ivon
He was trained in law at Paris and Orleans, served as a diocesan judge, and used the position in a way that got him remembered: he heard cases without charging, visited prisoners, sheltered the destitute in his own house, and represented people against landlords and officials who could afford counsel when they could not. There is a Latin rhyme about him that translates roughly as a lawyer and not a thief, a thing not often seen, which was being repeated within a century of his death. Brittany still keeps his feast; lawyers' associations across Catholic Europe adopted him; and the phrase about him has outlived almost everything else that was said.
Meaning
Yew
The Germanic element behind Yves and Ivo is the word for a yew tree, which was the standard timber for bows and therefore an entirely military thing to name a child after. The name reached France with the Franks, took hold in Brittany, and produced a large family of forms of which this is one.
How the name formed
- Ivo
- Yves
- Yvon
- Ivon
Related forms: Yvon · Erwan
Pronouncing Ivon
ee-VON
Two syllables with the stress at the back in French. English speakers often say EYE-von with the weight at the front, and the spelling supports both since the i can be read either way.
Nicknames for Ivon
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 girls named
- 199751 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2511reached in 1997
- Change vs 2018
- −14.3%6 in 2022, from 7
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.
Ivon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yvon in French — same name
- Erwan in Breton — related form
Ivons among us
people named Ivon 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
Ivon 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 works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- Short, firm and easy to spell once the first vowel is settled.
- It has a documented Breton history and a genuinely likeable saint attached.
- The record carries it for boys as well as girls, so it signals nothing on a form.
- Two live pronunciations and the spelling settles neither.
- Yvonne and Yvon are both commoner and will be written instead.
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What they receive
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Ivon
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Ivons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Ivon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ivon in 2025?
- Ivon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Ivon with classmates?
- Ivon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More I names
The most-given names starting with I, all years combined.
Isabella#7 · Irene#651 · Ida#1120 · Isabel#176 · Isabelle#166 · Iris#61 · Ivy#39 · Irma#3167
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ivon? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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