Orval

Where Orval comes from

Orval 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 #363 among boys — 22 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1902
    Peak, #291
    42 babies named Orval — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1910
    Orval Faubus born
    36th governor of Arkansas
  4. 1926
    Orval H. Hansen born
    American politician
  5. 1962
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,962.
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Orval Faubus · 36th governor of Arkansas, 1910–1994
  • Orval H. Hansen · American politician, 1926–2017
  • Orval Tessier · Canadian ice hockey coach, 1933–2022
  • Orval Hobart Mowrer · American psychologist, 1907–1982
  • Orval Grove · American baseball pitcher, 1919–1992

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.