Humanverse

Orvil vs Orvis

American parents have registered 1,935 Orvils since 1880, against 940 Orvises. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Orvil against Orvis, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Orvil Orvis

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 78 years in which either name was published, Orvil for 71 years and Orvis for 7 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Orvil Orvis
Total US births 1,935940
Most in one year 8644
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 340130
Median age today 7579
Peak year 19211920
Best rank 698th boys1,045th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18971885
Girls / boys 0 / 1,9350 / 940

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Orvises alive today are over 79; half the Orvils are over 75. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Orvil and Orvis.