Ivor
Masculine · “Old Norse "yew warrior”
Ivor is given to both — 863 boys and 46 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Two unrelated names collapsed into Ivor. One is Norse Ívarr, built on the yew — the wood bows were made from. The other is Welsh Ifor, an old Welsh name of quite different origin, and English spelling has been treating them as one word for centuries.
How old is the name Ivor?
Ivor first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Ivor alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 400 people named Ivor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ivor most popular?
Ivor peaked in 1902, reaching #933 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 6,746 places below that high. See the whole 1902 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ýr to Ivor
The story of Ivor
Yew is the bow wood of northern Europe, and the reason is mechanical: the heartwood resists compression and the sapwood resists stretching, so a stave cut across the boundary is a natural spring. That made the tree valuable enough to name warriors after, and the element appears across Germanic naming. Ívarr came to Britain with Norse settlement — Ívarr the Boneless led the Great Heathen Army in 865 — and the Welsh Ifor developed independently in Wales, where it was carried by medieval princes. Both are anglicized as Ivor, and the American figures peak in 1902 with British and Welsh immigration.
Meaningscholars disagree
Old Norse "yew warrior"; or a separate Welsh name
Ívarr is generally read as ýr, a yew or a bow, plus arr or herr, a warrior or army — a bowman. The Welsh Ifor is separate and its meaning is unsettled, with lord and archer both proposed; it is not a Welsh form of Ivor but a native name that English speakers spelled the same way. Ivo, from the same Germanic yew element, is a third relative arriving by a Continental route.
How the name formed
- ýr
- Ívarr
- Ivor
Related forms: Ifor · Ivar · Ivar
Pronouncing Ivor
EYE-vor
Two syllables, stress on the first. Welsh Ifor is EE-vor, with the f said as v — a single f in Welsh is always v, and ff is the f sound.
Nicknames for Ivor
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
- 1896
- Most boys named
- 191822 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #933reached in 1902
- Change vs 2023
- +11.1%10 in 2025, from 9
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.
Ivor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ifor in Welsh — related form
- Ivar in Norwegian — same name
- Ivar in Swedish — same name
Ivors among us
people named Ivor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Ivor
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
Ivor 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
Ivor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ivor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Norse etymology is settled and concrete: the yew and the bow.
- It is short, two syllables and easy to say.
- It carries both a Norse and a Welsh history depending on the family.
- Two unrelated names share the spelling.
- The Welsh and English pronunciations differ in the first vowel.
- It is rare in America and will need spelling out.
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Ivor
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ivors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Ivor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ivor in 2025?
- Ivor ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ivor?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Ivor — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ivor with classmates?
- Ivor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ivor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ivor? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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