Val
The boy's name Val has been in the national records since 1882, with 7,406 births to its name. It is given to both boys and girls. In 2025 it ranked 4,539th. About 4,300 Vals are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 66.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Val boys named Val
Girls and boys called Val
years more girls than boys years more boys than girls
Both, throughout, without either side ever taking it over: 1,749 girls and 5,657 boys in all, and in 2023 the split was 6 to 19.
The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 69 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 7,406
- Estimated living today
- 4,300
- Median age today
- 66
- Peak year
- 1952
- Best rank
- 523rd
- Rank in 2025
- 4,539th
- First recorded
- 1882
- Girls / boys
- 1,749 / 5,657
How old the living Vals are
born that year still alive today
Of the 7,406 babies given the name since 1882, about 4,300 are alive — 57 in every hundred. Roughly 200 of them are children and 2,400 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1959 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Vals
- Val Kilmer (1959–2025)American actor
- Val Logsdon Fitch (1923–2015)American physicist
- Val McDermid (born 1955)Scottish crime writer
- Val Demings (born 1957)American politician in Florida
- Val Venis (born 1971)Canadian professional wrestler
- Val Valentino (born 1956)American magician
- Val Avery (1924–2009)American actor
- Val Guest (1911–2006)British film director
People named Val with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Val is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Val is most concentrated in Utah (32.2×), Idaho (16.8×), California (2.6×), Michigan (1.5×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1952
The most popular boys’ names the year Val peaked:
Related names
Val against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.