Valerie
Feminine · “to be strong”
Valerie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 273,229 girls against 693 boys since 1880. See Valerie as a boy name
Valerie is a Roman family name that reached English through French rather than directly, which is why the Latin form has never been common here and the French one has. The family it belongs to was one of the oldest in Rome and supplied one of the empire's most humiliating moments.
How old is the name Valerie?
Valerie first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Valerie alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 244,000 people named Valerie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Valerie most popular?
Valerie peaked in 1959, reaching #60 nationally. Today it ranks #127, 67 places below that high. See the whole 1959 chart.
Where it comes from
From Valerius to Valerie
The story of Valerie
Valerian was captured by the Persian king Shapur in the third century, and he is the only Roman emperor ever taken alive by a foreign enemy. What happened to him afterwards is disputed — Roman sources, written by people with reasons to make it worse, say he was used as a footstool for mounting a horse and eventually flayed and stuffed; Persian sources say nothing of the kind and imply he was held in reasonable conditions with his captured soldiers put to work building a dam in Khuzestan that is still standing. What is certain is the propaganda. Shapur had the capture carved into the rock face at Naqsh-e Rostam, near the tombs of the Achaemenid kings, showing himself on horseback with a Roman emperor kneeling and another held by the wrist. The reliefs are still there and still legible.
Meaning
to be strong; to be in good health
The Roman family name is built on the verb valere, to be strong or well, which also gives English valid, value, valor, convalesce and the farewell vale. The name is an assertion about the family rather than a description of a person.
Cultural footprint
Valerie Bertinelli (b. 1960) — Beloved sitcom star and Food Network host
Valerie Harper (b. 1939) — TV's Rhoda
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Valerius
- Valeria
- Valérie
- Valerie
Related forms: Valérie · Valeria · Valeria · Valeriya · Valerie
Pronouncing Valerie
VAL-uh-ree
Three syllables with the stress at the front in English. French puts an accent on the second e and stresses the last syllable, so the French and English versions of the same spelling sound quite different.
Nicknames for Valerie
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 19606,717 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #60reached in 1959
- Change vs 2022
- +11.8%2,221 in 2025, from 1,986
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.
Valerie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Valérie in French — same name
- Valeria in Italian — related form
- Valeria in Spanish — related form
- Valeriya in Russian — related form
- Valerie in Czech — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Valeries among us
people named Valerie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 724 born in 2025 was named Valerie
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 Loretta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Valerie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Loretta climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Loretta's path sketches the road Valerie is walking now.
Valerie peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Valerie is headed
Valerie should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Valerie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Valerie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Val comes off it at once and works in any setting.
- The meaning is documented and positive without being abstract.
- It exists across most of Europe, so it travels without being rebuilt.
- It has been common for several decades, so a classroom may hold more than one.
- Valarie and Valeri are both recorded and will be written for it.
- The French original stresses it differently, which matters in a bilingual family.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Valerie
Feminine · #127 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Valeries are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 244,000 people named Valerie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Valerie in 2025?
- Valerie ranks #127 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,221 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Valerie?
- About 1 in every 724 US girls born in 2025 was named Valerie — 2,221 in all.
- Will my child share the name Valerie with classmates?
- Valerie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Valerie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ariana#128 · Scottie#126 · Serenity#129 · Mary#125 · Alina#130 · Magnolia#124 · Elsie#123 · Julia#131
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Valerie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Valerie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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