Valery
Feminine · “from Latin valere”
Valery is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 8,825 girls against 107 boys since 1880.
Valery reaches back to the Roman family name Valerius, built on the Latin verb valere — to be strong, to be well. The same root gives English words like valid and valiant, and the name has traveled through French, Spanish, Italian and Russian on its way here. In the mouth it moves quickly, three light syllables that end on a rising note.
How old is the name Valery?
Valery first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Valery alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 8,500 people named Valery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Valery most popular?
Valery peaked in 2006, reaching #716 nationally. Today it ranks #743, 27 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Valerius to Valery
The story of Valery
Valerius was a Roman clan name, and its feminine Valeria was in use across the Latin-speaking world long before it became a Christian name. Romance languages kept it close to the original — Valeria in Spanish and Italian, Valérie in French — while Slavic languages produced Valeriya for women and Valeriy for men. The spelling Valery arrived in English partly as a plainer rendering of French Valérie and partly as the standard transliteration of the Russian masculine name, so the same six letters name women in one tradition and men in another. In the United States it is recorded for girls, and it is strongest in states with deep Spanish-speaking populations, where Valeria has long been a household name.
Meaning
from Latin valere, 'to be strong, to be healthy'
The name comes from Valerius, the name of one of Rome's old patrician clans, which was formed from that verb.
How the name formed
- Valerius
- Valeria
- Valérie
- Valerie
- Valery
Related forms: Valérie · Valeria · Valeria · Valeriya · Waleria · Valeria
Pronouncing Valery
VAL-uh-ree
English speakers say it like Valerie. In Spanish-speaking households it is often vah-leh-REE, with the stress at the end, and the French Valérie is va-lay-REE. All three are correct for this spelling — worth deciding early which one your family uses.
Nicknames for Valery
High
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
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 2025366 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #716reached in 2006
- Change vs 2023
- +9.3%366 in 2025, from 335
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.
Valery in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Valérie in French — same name
- Valeria in Spanish — related form
- Valeria in Italian — related form
- Valeriya in Russian — transliteration
- Waleria in Polish — related form
- Valeria in Romanian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Valerys among us
people named Valery are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,391 born in 2025 was named Valery
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 Brigette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Valery's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Brigette climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Brigette's path sketches the road Valery is walking now.
Valery is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Valery is headed
Valery 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.
Valery beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Valery in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The root is recognizable across Spanish, Italian, French, Russian and English, so the name is understood in most places without explanation.
- Val is a short form with centuries of use behind it, ready-made and needing no invention.
- Never met in numbers, yet no one has to be taught how to say it — the sound is already familiar through Valerie and Valeria.
- Fully at home in both English and Spanish, which matters in bilingual families.
- It will be written Valerie by default, all life long — on forms, in email addresses, by teachers. The correction is small but constant.
- The spelling carries two pronunciations, VAL-uh-ree and vah-leh-REE, and relatives may not choose the same one.
- Because Valery is also the usual English spelling of a Russian man's name, the occasional reader of a document or resume may picture a man before meeting her.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Valery to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Valery
Feminine · #743 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Valerys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,500 people named Valery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Valery in 2025?
- Valery ranks #743 among US girl names in 2025, with 366 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Valery?
- About 1 in every 4,391 US girls born in 2025 was named Valery — 366 in all.
- Will my child share the name Valery with classmates?
- Valery will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Valery
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kiana#743 · Kensley#741 · Emerald#741 · Maisy#745 · Araceli#746 · Penny#740 · Mikayla#746 · Dani#746
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Valery? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Valery and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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