Avis

Where Avis comes from

Avis hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #449 among girls — 14 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1912
    Peak, #238
    358 babies named Avis — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1923
    Avis Bunnage born
    British actress
  4. 1938
    Avis McIntosh born
    New Zealand hurdler
  5. 1941
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #559.
  6. 2017
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Avis Bunnage · British actress, 1923–1990
  • Avis McIntosh · New Zealand hurdler, 1938–2025
  • Avis DeVoto · US book editor, 1904–1989
  • Avis Higgs · New Zealand textile designer and artist, 1918–2016
  • Avis Crocombe · English cook, 1835–1927

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.