Valencia
Feminine · “valor”
Valencia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 12,198 girls against 11 boys since 1880.
Valencia is a Spanish city whose Roman name meant valor — Valentia Edetanorum, the strength of the Edetani, founded for retired legionaries in 138 BC.
How old is the name Valencia?
Valencia first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Valencia alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 11,500 people named Valencia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Valencia most popular?
Valencia peaked in 1969, reaching #633 nationally. Today it ranks #1721, 1,088 places below that high. See the whole 1969 chart.
Valencia appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From valere to Valencia
The story of Valencia
Valencia was a Roman colony, an independent Muslim taifa, and the city El Cid took in 1094 and held until his death. Its cathedral claims the Holy Grail. The Valencia orange is named for it. The name entered American given-name use in the twentieth century and appears in the registers in current use.
Meaning
valor, strength
From the Latin valentia, 'strength' or 'vigor', from valere, 'to be strong' — the same verb behind valid, value and Valentine. The Romans founded the city in 138 BC and named it for the quality. The etymology is documented and undisputed.
How the name formed
- valere
- valentia
- Valencia
Related forms: Valencia · València · Valenza
Pronouncing Valencia
vuh-LEN-see-uh
Four syllables, stress on the second. Spanish says bah-LEN-thya in Castilian and bah-LEN-sya elsewhere.
Nicknames for Valencia
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
- 1919
- Most girls named
- 1970261 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #633reached in 1969
- Change vs 2023
- −34.4%118 in 2025, from 180
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.
Valencia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Valencia in Spanish — same name
- València in Catalan — same name
- Valenza in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, Florida.
Valencias among us
people named Valencia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 13,621 born in 2025 was named Valencia
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 Loyce test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Valencia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Loyce climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Loyce's path sketches the road Valencia is walking now.
Valencia 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
Where Valencia is headed
Valencia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Valencia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Valencia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The valor meaning is transparent, undisputed and unusually strong.
- A real city with two thousand years of documented history stands behind it.
- Val is available as a short form with a real record.
- The Spanish pronunciation differs considerably from the English.
- The orange association is strong for many people.
- Four syllables make it long for everyday use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Valencia
Feminine · #1721 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Valencias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,500 people named Valencia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Valencia in 2025?
- Valencia ranks #1721 among US girl names in 2025, with 118 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Valencia?
- About 1 in every 13,621 US girls born in 2025 was named Valencia — 118 in all.
- Will my child share the name Valencia with classmates?
- Valencia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Valencia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zyra#1721 · Adalia#1721 · Naila#1721 · Kristina#1721 · India#1721 · Kaliah#1721 · Rayah#1721 · Nicolette#1721
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Valencia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Valencia and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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