Greco
Greek name meaning "of Greece" or "the Greek".
Name Census estimates that about 105 living Americans carry the first name Greco. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Greco today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Greco births was 2005 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Greco. 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.
People living today
105
~ 1 in 3,264,327 Americans
Peak year
2005
40 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2013 SSA rank
#12,789
Tracked since 2000
Census
Greco in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 153 people with the first name Greco, which placed it at #44,840 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
#44,840
National first-name rank
People counted
153
153 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
71.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Greco
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Greco is Hispanic at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and White (10.5%). 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 Greco 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 Greco at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino71.9% · 110
- Black or African American11.8% · 18
- White10.5% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 5
- Two or more races2.6% · 4
Popularity
Greco: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Greco from the 2000s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 94 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Greco 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 Greco during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Grecos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Greco
The name Greco has its origins in the Latin language and is derived from the word "Graecus," which means "Greek" or "of Greek origin." This name is closely tied to the ancient Greek civilization and culture that flourished in the Mediterranean region from the 8th century BCE to the 6th century CE.
Greco was a name commonly used in ancient Rome to refer to individuals of Greek descent or those who had strong ties to Greek culture and traditions. During this time period, the influence of Greek philosophy, art, and literature was widespread throughout the Roman Empire, and many Romans admired and adopted aspects of Greek culture.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Greco can be found in the works of the Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a Greek general named Greco who fought against the Romans during the Punic Wars in the 3rd century BCE. Another notable individual with this name was Greco of Tralles, a Greek physician who lived in the 6th century CE and was known for his contributions to the field of medicine.
In the Middle Ages, the name Greco continued to be used, particularly in regions with strong Greek cultural influences, such as Italy and parts of the Byzantine Empire. One noteworthy figure from this time period was Greco the Calabrian, a 12th-century monk and philosopher from Calabria, a region in southern Italy with deep Greek roots.
During the Renaissance, a prominent artist known as El Greco, whose full name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos, gained fame for his unique style of painting that blended Byzantine and Western artistic traditions. El Greco was born in 1541 on the Greek island of Crete and later relocated to Spain, where he became a significant figure in the Spanish Renaissance.
In more recent history, the name Greco has been borne by several accomplished individuals, including Gian Pietro Greco, an Italian mathematician and architect who lived in the 16th century, and Juanito Greco, a Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer who was active in the early 20th century and helped popularize flamenco dance globally.
People
Greco + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Greco 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
Greco: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Greco?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 105 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Greco 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 3,264,327 US residents.
Is Greco a common name?
We classify Greco as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 106 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Greco most popular?
The single biggest year for Greco was 2005, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Greco is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Greco in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 153 people with the name Greco, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,840 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 Greco 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 Greco?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Greco appears almost entirely male. Of the 147 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Greco?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Greco is Hispanic at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and White (10.5%). 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 Greco most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Greco in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.9% (110 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 Greco in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Greco a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Greco 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 Greco still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Greco 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 Greco 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 share the name Greco?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.