Raven
Raven was given to 771 girls in 2025, #404 among girls’ names; 48,253 Americans have been recorded with it since 1921 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 47,300 Americans named Raven and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 17 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Raven by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Raven mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Raven is “a female given name from English, usually for a girl with raven hair, used since the 1970s.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Raven?
#404 among girls’ names, 2025
Raven rose from #487 in 2015 to #404 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.37 to 0.48 per 1,000.
2,394 babies in 1993, the peak
Raven peaked in 1993, when 2,394 babies were given it (2,285 girls, #139 among girls’ names). The 813 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 34% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 771 | #404 | 0.48 |
| 2024 | 816 | #387 | 0.50 |
| 2023 | 848 | #361 | 0.53 |
| 2022 | 772 | #409 | 0.47 |
| 2021 | 779 | #408 | 0.47 |
| 2020 | 749 | #417 | 0.46 |
| 2019 | 746 | #425 | 0.44 |
| 2018 | 751 | #413 | 0.44 |
| 2017 | 713 | #443 | 0.41 |
| 2016 | 637 | #489 | 0.36 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 658 | #487 | 0.37 |
| 2014 | 619 | #506 | 0.35 |
| 2013 | 580 | #514 | 0.33 |
| 2012 | 553 | #544 | 0.31 |
| 2011 | 489 | #592 | 0.28 |
| 2010 | 488 | #601 | 0.27 |
| 2009 | 476 | #632 | 0.26 |
| 2008 | 500 | #612 | 0.26 |
| 2007 | 631 | #507 | 0.33 |
| 2006 | 736 | #434 | 0.39 |
| 2005 | 905 | #348 | 0.49 |
| 2004 | 1,220 | #265 | 0.66 |
| 2003 | 1,428 | #231 | 0.78 |
| 2002 | 1,338 | #237 | 0.74 |
| 2001 | 1,355 | #234 | 0.75 |
| 2000 | 1,447 | #215 | 0.80 |
| 1999 | 1,527 | #203 | 0.86 |
| 1998 | 1,653 | #185 | 0.94 |
| 1997 | 1,781 | #170 | 1.0 |
| 1996 | 1,622 | #184 | 0.93 |
| 1995 | 1,757 | #171 | 1.0 |
| 1994 | 2,075 | #156 | 1.2 |
| 1993 | 2,285 | #139 | 1.3 |
| 1992 | 2,017 | #151 | 1.1 |
| 1991 | 2,026 | #150 | 1.1 |
| 1990 | 1,760 | #166 | 0.93 |
| 1989 | 476 | #495 | 0.26 |
| 1988 | 327 | #612 | 0.18 |
| 1987 | 348 | #571 | 0.20 |
| 1986 | 325 | #594 | 0.19 |
| 1985 | 403 | #505 | 0.23 |
| 1984 | 407 | #491 | 0.24 |
| 1983 | 425 | #470 | 0.25 |
| 1982 | 469 | #455 | 0.28 |
| 1981 | 380 | #520 | 0.23 |
| 1980 | 408 | #499 | 0.25 |
| 1979 | 346 | #542 | 0.22 |
| 1978 | 342 | #533 | 0.22 |
| 1977 | 299 | #579 | 0.20 |
| 1976 | 100 | #1,158 | 0.07 |
| 1975 | 17 | #3,898 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,177 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 10 | #5,474 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 25 | #2,808 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 26 | #2,785 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 8 | #6,220 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 23 | #2,822 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 14 | #3,728 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 14 | #3,608 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 22 | #2,641 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 14 | #3,505 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,549 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 14 | #3,591 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 13 | #3,734 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,188 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 11 | #4,104 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,936 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 13 | #3,505 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,819 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,803 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,507 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,428 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 12 | #3,426 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,221 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #6,042 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 7 | #4,562 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 9 | #3,809 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 13 | #3,026 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,432 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 5 | #5,216 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 5 | #5,216 | under 0.01 |
| 1941 | 6 | #4,323 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Raven a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 48,253 Americans recorded as Raven, 93% are girls and 7% boys. In 2025 it went to 771 girls and 42 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Raven: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Raven, and how old are they?
47,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 48,253 Americans ever recorded as Raven. The median Raven alive today is 27 years old; half are between 17 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 37,274 people named Raven (34,596 women and girls, 2,678 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 42,764 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 24 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 203 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,770 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 17,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 17,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,920 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Raven born?
The states with the most babies named Raven are Texas, California and Florida, with 21% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 55 | #579 | 0.9× |
| California | 54 | #658 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 47 | #401 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 44 | #255 | 0.6× |
| New York | 37 | #470 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 33 | #343 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 31 | #359 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 26 | #449 | 1.5× |
| Indiana | 26 | #276 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 25 | #331 | 1.6× |
Where Raven is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Raven is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1921 it was given 2.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Raven with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 57,921 babies since 1880, Raven is the most given (83% of them). In 2025 it was given to 813 of their 1,002 babies (81%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Raven
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Raven and names like it
- Compare Raven and RayvenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sRaven peaked in 1993.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Raven since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Raven: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Raven.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Raven alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with RMost given first.