Virginia: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Virginia has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 145 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 654,381 births with this name, split between 652,372 girls and 2,009 boys. Because the larger side of that split is girls, this page follows the girls ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Virginia was 1922, when 19,144 girls received the name and it reached rank 7 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1922, Virginia accounted for 1.59% of all recorded girls births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Virginia by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Virginia becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Virginia can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

During the 1880s, Virginia stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 94 and 2,948 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1890s, Virginia stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 75 and 5,864 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1900s, Virginia stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 30 and 14,539 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 1910s, Virginia was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 7 and recording 94,322 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1920s, Virginia was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 6 and recording 169,554 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. During the 1930s, Virginia stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 12 and 103,088 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1940s, Virginia stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 21 and 98,998 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1950s, Virginia stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 43 and 69,783 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table.

In the 1960s, Virginia recorded 35,344 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 102, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1970s, Virginia recorded 18,053 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 146, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1980s, Virginia recorded 14,996 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 159, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1990s, Virginia recorded 9,865 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 215, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2000s, Virginia recorded 6,704 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 366, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2010s, Virginia recorded 5,542 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 514, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2020s, Virginia recorded 2,772 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 510, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among girls, and the share of all girls births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 489 to 601, a change of +22.9 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Virginia stands right now: gaining ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Virginia recorded 811 births for girls, and in 2010 it recorded 489. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Virginia also appears on the boys side of the file, with 2,009 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 652,372 births recorded for girls, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the girls table only. Counting both sides together, Virginia totals 654,381 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 89 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among girls and a rank earned among boys describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Virginia with the full rankings for its peak year (1922) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Virginia were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 601 girls named Virginia, ranked 510 among girls that year.

When was Virginia most popular?
Virginia peaked in 1922 with 19,144 births for girls, reaching rank 7 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Virginia appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 654,381 births named Virginia from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/