Velva

Popularity Trends

The name Velva is the #4,192 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 4,274 recorded births since 1888. This represents the 45.8% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 45.8% of all names). For girls, it ranks #2,625 (54.1% percentile) for all time with 4,274 births since 1888.

Velva first appeared in U.S. birth records in 1888 (first recorded for girls in 1888). Birth data for Velva is available in 94 out of the 96 years between 1888 and 1983. The Social Security Administration only reports birth data for years in which the name was given to at least five children of the same gender.

For girls, Velva reached its peak popularity in 1916, achieving the 23.1% percentile (ranked #441) with 128 births per million. The name was most common in 1913, with 147 births per million (ranked 18.6% percentile). There have been no recorded female births with this name since 1983.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Velva".

1888 1983 18881983

Key Statistics

Total Births

4,274

Peak Births

139

Peak Year

1916

First Recorded

1888

Peak Percentile

23.1%

Current Percentile

—

Peak Rank

#441

Current Rank

—

Female statistics

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Velva", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Velva.

Names with Correlated Trends

These 12 names have popularity trends that correlate most strongly with the name Velva's popularity from 1885 to 1986 on a gender-neutral basis. Names may rise and fall in popularity for a variety of reasons, but correlations often reflect either changes in naming fashion or demographic shifts.

The correlation calculations in the table below ignore absolute popularity to show you names that move in similar directions as the name Velva at the same time. They also correct for changes in the overall birth rate over time. The 0-100% trend values are calculated by dividing each name's gender-neutral births per million by the peak births per million for that name.

The 12 names most strongly correlated to Velva range from Velma at 96.2% correlation to Ruby at 93.8% correlation, with an average correlation level of 94.7%. The most popular of these 12 most correlated names is Mildred with 452.8K births (100% girls) and the least popular is Myrtis with 6.1K births (100% girls).

Velva's share of births peaked at 146.6 births per million for girls in 1916. It reached its lowest point of 2.8 births per million (2% of peak) in 1982. In 1983, the most recent period with data, the name Velva had 3.9 births per million, 3% of its peak popularity.

This chart shows how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak (100%).

Velma

87.2k

96.23% (very strong)

Maurine

8,949

95.88% (very strong)

Jewell

34.1k

95.51% (very strong)

Lucille

230.8k

95.12% (very strong)

Mildred

452.8k

94.83% (very strong)

Rubye

6,967

94.44% (very strong)

Erma

55.1k

94.43% (very strong)

Thelma

226.5k

94.11% (very strong)

Garnet

8,904

94.10% (very strong)

Dorothea

34.2k

93.95% (very strong)

Myrtis

6,126

93.94% (very strong)

Ruby

372.5k

93.78% (very strong)

About this table: Correlation values are shown as percentages from 0% to 100%, with each value accompanied by its strength (very weak to very strong). Higher percentages and stronger correlations indicate names that rise and fall together more closely in popularity. The strength labels are color-coded from gray (very weak) to green (very strong). The Trend column visualizes how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak. Absolute correlation values are shown for simplicity (all correlations here are positive). The Total Births column is color-coded by gender distribution - blue shades for predominantly male names and red shades for predominantly female names, with purple hues indicating a more balanced gender distribution.

How to Pronounce Velva

Our model found one way to pronounce the name Velva. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 100.0% confident that Velva is pronounced as VEHL-vuh, which has 2 syllables.

VEHL-vuh

100.0%

VEHL-vuh (2 syllables)

100.0% confidence

V EH1 L V AH0

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Velva? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Velva. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Velva, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like V EH1 L V AH0) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker

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