How popular is the name Valerie?

Valerie ranks 156th among girls' names in US records, with 285,127 births since 1884. Over the past decade it accounts for 22,178.

Is Valerie a unisex name?

No. Valerie is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.

1959, when 7,442 children were given the name. It has been in use for 141 years and is still recorded as of 2024.

Valery. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.

Girl name#156 of girl names

Pronounced V AE1 L ER0 IY0 (ARPABET)

Valerie is a girls' name, and first appears in 1884. It has been given to 285,127 children — the 156th most common girls' name on record.

Its use has been broadly flat across the past two decades. Its best single year was 1959, when 7,442 children were given it.

Valery is counted with it here, since the two are pronounced identically.

1959Girls: 7,442Boys: 16

These spellings sound identical to Valerie and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.

Phonetic detail

Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.

Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.

Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.

How popular is the name Valerie?: Valerie ranks 156th among girls' names in US records, with 285,127 births since 1884. Over the past decade it accounts for 22,178.
Is Valerie a unisex name?: No. Valerie is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
When was Valerie most popular?: 1959, when 7,442 children were given the name. It has been in use for 141 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
How else is Valerie spelled?: Valery. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.