Giacomo
The masculine Italian form of the name Jacob, meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel".
Name Census estimates that about 1,569 living Americans carry the first name Giacomo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Giacomo today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Giacomo births was 2006 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Giacomo. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Giacomo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 218,454 Americans
Peak year
2006
56 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,282
Tracked since 1912
Census
Giacomo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,211 people with the first name Giacomo, which placed it at #7,039 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,039
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,211 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Giacomo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giacomo is White at 86.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Giacomo described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Giacomo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.2% · 1,906
- Hispanic or Latino10.3% · 228
- Two or more races2.3% · 50
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 16
- Black or African American0.5% · 11
Popularity
Giacomo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Giacomo from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 423 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Giacomo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Giacomo by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Giacomo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Giacomos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. New York, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Giacomo, while Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 99 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Giacomo
The name Giacomo has its roots in the Italian language and culture, with a long and rich history dating back centuries. It is the Italian form of the name James, derived from the late Latin name Iacomus, which in turn originated from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov.
Giacomo gained prominence as a personal name during the Middle Ages in Italy, particularly in regions such as Tuscany, Lombardy, and Veneto. It was often associated with individuals from noble or influential families, contributing to its widespread use across the country.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Giacomo can be found in the writings of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who lived from 1265 to 1321. In his renowned work, the Divine Comedy, Dante mentions a character named Giacomo da Sant'Andrea, indicating the name's use during that era.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Giacomo. One of the most famous was Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), the infamous Italian adventurer and author renowned for his memoirs detailing his amorous exploits across Europe. Another prominent figure was Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), the celebrated Italian composer who created masterpieces such as La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.
In the realm of art, Giacomo Balla (1871-1958) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor, known as a key figure in the Futurist movement. The name Giacomo was also associated with religious figures, such as Giacomo della Marca (1394-1476), an Italian Franciscan preacher and theologian who was later canonized as a saint.
The name Giacomo has also been carried by influential philosophers and thinkers, such as Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), an Italian poet, philosopher, and scholar renowned for his works exploring human suffering and the human condition.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals who have borne the name Giacomo throughout history, highlighting its enduring presence and cultural significance within the Italian tradition.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Giacomo
People
Giacomo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Giacomo as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Giacomo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Giacomo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,569 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Giacomo going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 218,454 US residents.
Is Giacomo a common name?
We classify Giacomo as "Rare". It ranks above 92.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,847 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Giacomo most popular?
The single biggest year for Giacomo was 2006, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Giacomo is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Giacomo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,211 people with the name Giacomo, or 0.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,039 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Giacomo in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Giacomo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giacomo appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,209 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Giacomo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giacomo is White at 86.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Giacomo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Giacomo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.2% (1,906 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Giacomo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Giacomo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Giacomo in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Giacomo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Giacomo in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Giacomo can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Giacomo?
See how many Americans are named Giacomo on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.