Valerie

What Valerie means

Same root as Valeria, meaning “to be healthy, to be strong”

Doublet of Valeria || Feminine form of Roman family name Valerius, from Latin valere (“to be healthy, to be strong”).

Source: Wiktionary, “Valerie” (revision 91505576) and “Valeria” (revision 94544441), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Valerie?

US: Rising: up from #171 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #1057 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1959, when 7,302 girls got the name (#60 that year). First in the US records in 1884.

How common

• About 1 in 724 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 4,690 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 3,578 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in AK (4.84 per 1,000 girls), NV (3.26 per 1,000 girls), DE (3.1 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Valerie is #127 in the US and #684 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Valerie were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Valeria1,835 US · 35 E&W
• Valarie48 US
• Valorie39 US
• Valyrie5 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Valerie

Girls

• Paula#853Editor’s note Up from #889 in 2015 to #853 in 2025 in the US
• Barbara#968“strange, foreign”^*
• Alma#449“nourishing, kind”^*
• Rosa#652“rose”^*
• Celina#827Polish form of Celine, meaning “heaven”^*
• Sylvia#300“forest”^*

For a brother

• Lawrence#518Editor’s note Down from #499 in 2015 to #518 in 2025 in the US
• Martin#335“of or like Mars”^*
• Paul#262“small”^*
• Harry#775Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1918, with 9,896 babies; 329 in 2025
• Mark#244Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1960, with 58,727 babies; 1,416 in 2025
• Justin#233“just”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under French, Latin, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Valerie’s. Rank is US 2025.