Jarvis
- Pronunciation
- [Jar-vis]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Sharp Spear
- Origin
- German
About the Name Jarvis
Jarvis traces back to Germanic roots, where it is commonly understood as "sharp spear" — a martial compound that pairs an edge-word with the imagery of a thrown weapon, the kind of bold, warrior-flavored meaning that gave many old Germanic names their staying power. It reached English largely as a surname, carried by families for generations before it crossed over into regular use as a given name, a path many sturdy occupational and descriptive surnames have followed into the modern naming pool.
As a first name, Jarvis carries the same confident, slightly vintage texture as cousins like Travis and Marvis, with a crisp two-syllable rhythm that lands easily on the ear. Its soft v and clean s sounds give it a quiet polish, and its surname heritage lends it a touch of understated formality. It feels both retro and individual — a name that nods to mid-century style while standing apart from current favorites, appealing to parents who want something recognizable yet uncommon.
Jarvis first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for boys in 2000, reaching its best showing that same year at rank #767. It held a place in the rankings through 2007, sitting at #908 with 219 births in its final tracked year. Across its time in the top-1000 it accounts for 1,353 recorded births, marking it as an uncommon but well-rooted choice rather than a mainstream one. Recorded variants include Jervis.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jarvis
US Popularity History (2000–2007)
Annual US births named Jarvis by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2007 with 219 boys named Jarvis (boy rank #908 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Jarvis Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Jarvis the strongest states are Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #460 | 37 |
| 2 | Alabama | #489 | 39 |
| 3 | South Carolina | #640 | 19 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #771 | 24 |
| 5 | Tennessee | #806 | 62 |
| 6 | Florida | #870 | 60 |
| 7 | Georgia | #881 | 81 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | #881 | 81 |
| 2 | Florida | #870 | 60 |
| 3 | Tennessee | #806 | 62 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #771 | 24 |
| 5 | South Carolina | #640 | 19 |
| 6 | Alabama | #489 | 39 |
| 7 | Mississippi | #460 | 37 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Jarvis in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jervis | Variant Of The French Name Gervaise Spearman. | Male | English |
Looking for names like Jarvis?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Jarvis to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jarvis against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).