Valentine

Where Valentine comes from

From Latin Valentīnus, a patronymic from Valēns (Roman cognomen), itself nominalized from vālens (“strong, healthy”) + -īnus (“-ine”). Doublet of Valentinus, Valentino, Valentina, and Valentini.
— Wiktionary's entry for Valentine
  • Latin
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #600 among boys — 10 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1894
    Peak, #358
    26 babies named Valentine — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1897
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #615.
  4. 1922
    Valentine Telegdi born
    American physicist
  5. 1967
    Valentine Strasser born
    Sierra Leonean politician
  6. 2016
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name from Latin.
  • A male given name from Latin in quiet but steady use since the 16th century.
  • A female given name from Latin occasionally borrowed from French.
  • An English and Scottish surname derived from the male given name.
Namesakes
  • Valentine Strasser · Sierra Leonean politician, born 1967
  • Valentine Telegdi · American physicist, 1922–2006
  • Valentine Demy · Italian mainstream and pornographic actress, born 1963
  • Valentine Hugo · French painter, draftsman, and illustrator, 1887–1968
  • Valentine de Saint-Point · artist, 1875–1953

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.