Voltaire
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Meaning
“Of disputed origin, perhaps an anagram of Arouet le jeune; famously borne by Voltaire, taken by Francois-Marie Arouet after eleven months in the Bastille.”
How popular is Voltaire around the world?
In the United States, Voltaire is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source. At the 2022 census, 116 people in Brazil were named Voltaire, ranked 37,144th, with a median age of 58.
Voltaire is on the official records of Brazil.
United States
under 5 a year
In the United States, Voltaire is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Voltaire has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Brazil
1 in 1M
At the 2022 census, 116 people in Brazil were named Voltaire, ranked 37,144th, with a median age of 58.
Among people named Voltaire living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1950s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
France
last on record 2019
Voltaire is not on the 2025 record for France, where spellings under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in France by year of birth, from INSEE’s fichier des prénoms (1900–2025; Mayotte from 2012); exact spellings count separately (Léo and Leo are different names), any spelling under 3 in a year and sex is withheld at source, every count is rounded to the nearest 5 at source, and nametree keeps the spellings that reached 20 in some year. Shares divide by INSEE’s count of births in France from 1957, and before that by the file’s own total for the year; INSEE says the file is not complete before 1946. Source: Insee, fichier des prénoms (last updated 2026-07-16)
Montevideo City
last on record 1962
Voltaire is not on the 2011 record for Montevideo, whose registry withholds nothing, so the spelling was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
Pen names and the names writers chose · Gender-neutral names
The Voltaire deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Voltaire truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Voltaire fits with your family’s names and surname.
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