Given name & surname · also German
Graven
“moat, ditch”
Graven is a surname with more than one origin.
Original GermanGraf
Meaning & origin
What it means
As an English surname, Graven goes back to Middle Low German grav, meaning “moat, ditch.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Graven has more than one origin: as an English surname, it comes from Middle Low German grav; as a Norwegian surname, it comes from Old Norse gróf.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Middle Low German grav (“moat, ditch”), from Old Saxon graf, from Proto-Germanic *grabą.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2008. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Graven through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 11
- 11 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2017
- 6 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 6 in 2017. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,040 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Graven’s family of names
In German usage, Graven as a surname has a related form in GRAF.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
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