Given name & surname
Vail
“from the valley”
Vail is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “from the valley.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “from the valley.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1915. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Vail through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 547
- 113 boys · 434 girls
- Most popular year
- 2018
- 59 babies
- 2025
- 25
- #6,307 for girls · #11,895 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −41%
- Cooling
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 19 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 6,307 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 43.5% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 53 in 2018. It also appeared in 6 birth records for boys in 2025. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 595 as a first name in 2020; 10,096 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.
Vail’s family of names
Vail has a related form in Vale. Vail has a related form in Valle. Vail has a related form in Vaile.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 7
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Vail
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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