Valerie
Masculine · “to be strong”
Valerie is given to girls far more often — 273,229 girls against 693 boys since 1880. See Valerie as a girl 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 1936 — 89 years ago. The typical Valerie alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 600 people named Valerie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Valerie most popular?
Valerie peaked in 1962, reaching #1669 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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.
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
- 1936
- Most boys named
- 198026 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1669reached in 1962
- Change vs 2004
- −14.3%6 in 2005, from 7
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
Valeries among us
people named Valerie are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Valerie 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
- 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.
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What they receive
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Valerie
Masculine
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 600 people named Valerie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Valerie in 2025?
- Valerie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Valerie with classmates?
- Valerie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More V names
The most-given names starting with V, all years combined.
Vincent#107 · Victor#209 · Vernon#1382 · Virgil#1409 · Van#970 · Vance#1075 · Vicente#589 · Vaughn#1152
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Valerie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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