Oval
Masculine
Oval is given to both — 500 boys and 101 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Oval is an old American name that is also one of the plainest words in English: the egg shape, from the Latin ovum. It was given to boys and to girls in the same spelling, and it has a round, open sound, OH-vul.
How old is the name Oval?
Oval first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Oval alive today was born around 1922, making them about 103 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Oval are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Oval most popular?
Oval peaked in 1920, reaching #1234 nationally. See the whole 1920 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Oval
Our story of Oval starts with an egg. Latin ovum gave the medieval ovalis, egg-shaped, and English took oval from it for any rounded figure longer than it is wide: a racetrack, a picture frame, a cricket ground in south London, the president's office in the West Wing. The same egg sits inside ovary and ovoid. Few English words are as easy to see in the mind's eye. As a first name it went to sons and to daughters alike, which suits a word with no corners.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No record explains Oval as a first name, for boys or for girls. The English word oval comes through Medieval Latin ovalis from ovum, 'egg', and so means egg-shaped; whether families took the name from the word or reached the same letters some other way is not documented.
Pronouncing Oval
OH-vul
Said like the English word, stress on the first syllable.
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
- 1909
- Most boys named
- 192034 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1234reached in 1920
- Change vs 1950
- +20.0%6 in 1952, from 5
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.
Ovals among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Oval are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Oval 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
- Spelled like a common English word, so everyone can read and say it on sight.
- Short, with no competing spelling to confuse anyone.
- Serves a boy or a girl equally, with no sense of borrowing from the other side.
- It is an everyday shape word, so it will be heard as the word first and a name second, with jokes about eggs and the Oval Office along the way.
- The record holds it for more boys than girls, so a girl named Oval is the rarer case, and forms may guess wrong about which she is; one correction usually settles it.
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What they receive
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Oval
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Ovals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Oval are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Oval in 2025?
- Oval is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Oval with classmates?
- Oval will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More O names
The most-given names starting with O, all years combined.
Oliver#3 · Owen#31 · Oscar#223 · Omar#260 · Otis#652 · Orlando#871 · Otto#277 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Oval? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Oval and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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