Laverne
Feminine · “the alder grove”
Laverne is given to both — 42,878 girls and 13,246 boys since 1880. See Laverne as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Laverne is a French phrase turned into a name — la verne, the alder grove — and it is one of a group of American names built by fusing an article to a noun and treating the result as a single word.
How old is the name Laverne?
Laverne first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Laverne alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 15,000 people named Laverne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Laverne most popular?
Laverne peaked in 1928, reaching #165 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 9,942 places below that high. See the whole 1928 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From verne to Laverne
The story of Laverne
French place names beginning with a fused article were common in Louisiana and in French-Canadian communities, and American naming took several of them up as given names in the late nineteenth century — Laverne, Lavelle, Lamar. Verne and Vernon were rising in the same decades, which reinforced the sound. Laverne was given to both sexes at first and settled as feminine in the twentieth century, peaking in the 1920s.
Meaningscholars disagree
the alder grove
The usual reading takes it from the French la verne, 'the alder tree', from a Gaulish word for that tree, which also gives the place name and surname Vernon. A competing account connects it to the Latin vernus, 'of spring'. A third points at Laverna, a minor Roman goddess associated with thieves and the underworld, but there is no evidence the name was given for her.
How the name formed
- verne
- la verne
- Laverne
Related forms: Laverne · LaVerne · Lavern
Pronouncing Laverne
luh-VURN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Some families capitalize the V — LaVerne — which marks the fused article on the page.
Nicknames for Laverne
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 19261,327 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #165reached in 1928
- Change vs 1998
- +12.5%9 in 2025, from 8
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.
Laverne in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Laverne in French — same name
- LaVerne in English — spelling variant
- Lavern in English — spelling variant
Lavernes among us
people named Laverne are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Laverne
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 Leola test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Laverne's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leola climbed just as high around 1905, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leola's path sketches the road Laverne is walking now.
Laverne 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
Laverne beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Laverne in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The alder-grove reading is concrete and easy to picture.
- The end stress is uncommon in English and gives the name a distinct rhythm.
- It carries a documented French-American naming pattern rather than being invented.
- Three readings of the origin are in circulation and none is decisive.
- The internal capital is a genuine choice between two established spellings.
- It is firmly period-coded to the first half of the twentieth century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Laverne
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lavernes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,000 people named Laverne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Laverne in 2025?
- Laverne ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Laverne?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Laverne — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Laverne with classmates?
- Laverne will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Laverne
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Laverne? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Laverne and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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