Valeria

63,605 people in America carry this name — ranked #777 of 923.

A name being given more often than it was a generation ago.

Say it vuh LEE ree uh

4 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

V AH0 L IY1 R IY0 AH0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 63,605 2020 Census
  • Rank #777 Familiar
  • Per 100,000 21.1 about 1 in 5,211 people
  • As a surname 232 ranked #86,457 the other way round

Where Valeria comes from and what it means

Latin in origin, reading literally as “healthy”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Valeria through the years

70,738 babies were given this name since 1881. The busiest year was 2008, with 4,211 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00s 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Valeria

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Valeria Ashley — runs together
  • Valeria Amy — runs together
  • Valeria Anna — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Valeria is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Valeria used for boys or for girls?

0.2% men
63,469 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

How to spell Valeria

Valeria is how 18% of them spell it — 354,941 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Who answers to it now

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 10.0%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 4.4%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 84.7%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Where the name Valeria is most common in the US

In Nevada the name is given 2.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Nevada ×2.8
  • Texas ×2.6
  • Arizona ×2.4
  • California ×2.3
  • Florida ×1.5

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Names with the same rhythm as Valeria

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 4 syllables, stress on the second

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Compare Two Names

Put another name beside this one.

One of those is not in the census file.

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Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Latin origin