Ivory

Ivory at a Glance

Ivory is an English word name associated with a creamy shade of white and the material traditionally used for carving and piano keys. It has been given to both boys and girls in the United States. There is also an older surname Ivory, with origins separate from the ordinary English word.

The Word and the Surname

The English material word came through French forms such as ivorie, ultimately from Latin ebur, meaning ivory. Its use as a color word is centuries old. As a given name, Ivory belongs beside other names drawn from substances and colors, although its musical associations are unusually strong because of the familiar expression “the ivories” for piano keys.

The surname has more than one explanation. It can come from Ivry-la-Bataille in Normandy, or from the medieval personal name Ivori. One account connects that older personal name with a Germanic element meaning “yew.” Other surname scholarship describes Ivory as a pet form of Ivor.

These are separate histories behind the same spelling. The modern word name has a clear material and color meaning; the family-name routes involve a French place or older personal names. Ivor is therefore relevant to one historical explanation, rather than the source of every modern Ivory.

Basketball and Film

Ivory Latta brought the given name to national attention in American women's basketball. As North Carolina's point guard, she helped lead the Tar Heels to the Final Four in both 2006 and 2007. She was also the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament's Most Valuable Player three years running, from 2005 through 2007.

Latta's college career included national player-of-the-year recognition in 2006 and a retired number 12 jersey at North Carolina. She went on to play in the WNBA.

Filmmaker James Ivory illustrates the surname's cultural presence. His directing credits include A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day. In 2018, he won the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay for Call Me by Your Name. Those achievements associate the spelling with both film direction and screenwriting.

Pronunciation and Shape

Ivory is usually pronounced EYE-vuh-ree, with the stress on the first syllable. A compressed two-syllable EYE-vree is also used. Its opening vowel and final ee sound give it a different rhythm from two-syllable Ivor.

Ivori and Ivery belong to its historical personal-name or surname background. Names such as Pearl and Ruby share its material-name style, but are not linguistic relatives. Ivory itself is a complete given name and does not require expansion into a longer form.

American Popularity

Ivory was more common among American boys in parts of the twentieth century. Its largest annual male total was 178 in 1950. In 2025, the male series recorded 30 boys.

For girls, the name has grown much more recently. The United States recorded 134 girls named Ivory in 2000 and 116 in 2010. In 2025 there were 810 girls, the largest annual female total in the American records, placing the name 378th.

How popular is Ivory?

In 2025, Ivory ranked #378 among girls in the United States, with 810 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1886; its largest annual count was 810 in 2025. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.