Ivy

Where Ivy comes from

From ivy, the name of a plant. An ivy branch used to be hung outside an establishment to advertise that it sold alcohol, so it may originally been an occupationational surname for the proprietor of such an establishment.
— Wiktionary's entry for Ivy
  • English
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #271 among girls — 33 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1884
    Ivy Compton-Burnett born
    English writer
  3. 1937
    Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri born
    South African politician
  4. 2024
    Peak, #36
    5,343 babies named Ivy — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name from English.
  • A female given name from English; popular in the UK in the beginning of the 20th century.
  • A male given name from English.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Ivan.
Namesakes
  • Ivy Compton-Burnett · English writer, 1884–1969
  • Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri · South African politician, 1937–2009
  • Ivy Dumont · Governor-General of the Bahamas, born 1930
  • Ivy Lee · American businessman, 1877–1934
  • Ivy Ling Po · Hong Kong actress and singer, born 1939

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.