Raven (given name)
unisex given name
Raven is a given name in the English language. While it may be given to boys and girls, it is more frequently a feminine name. In the United States of America the name has ranked among the top 1,000 names given to baby girls since 1977.
Etymology and related names
The word is the name of a bird, which is ultimately derived from the Old English hræfn. As a masculine name, Raven parallels the Old Norse Hrafn, and the Old English *Hræfn, which both mean "raven". As a feminine name Raven is among several names derived from birds such as Dove, Kestrel and Teal. Names derived from vocabulary words, such as the bird names mentioned, increased in popularity as feminine names in the English-speaking world during the 20th century. The feminine given name Ravenna is thought to be derived from the name of the northern Italian city Ravenna. However, in some cases Ravenna may also represent a more elaborately feminine form of Raven.
Raven is also a surname in the English language.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Raven (given name)” as unisex given name. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as unisex given name. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14197666. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1977.
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This entry incorporates text from “Raven (given name)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.