Ignacio
A masculine Spanish given name derived from the Latin Ignatius, meaning "fiery one."
Name Census estimates that about 15,653 living Americans carry the first name Ignacio. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ignacio today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ignacio births was 2006 (313 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ignacio. 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 Ignacio with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
16K
~ 1 in 21,897 Americans
Peak year
2006
313 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#824
Tracked since 1886
Census
Ignacio in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 35,091 people with the first name Ignacio, which placed it at #1,143 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
#1,143
National first-name rank
People counted
35K
35,091 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
11.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ignacio
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ignacio is Hispanic at 96.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.3%). 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 Ignacio 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 Ignacio at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.3% · 33,802
- White1.7% · 603
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 452
- Black or African American0.3% · 95
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 87
- Two or more races0.1% · 52
Gender
Gender distribution for Ignacio
Out of the 19,669 babies given the name Ignacio since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Ignacio as a male name
- Ranked #824 in 2024
- 302 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (313 births)
Ignacio as a female name
- Ranked #13,966 in 1991
- 5 female births in 1991
- Peak: 1926 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ignacio appears almost entirely male. Of the 35,092 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Ignacio: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ignacio from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,922 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Ignacio remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ignacio 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 Ignacio during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ignacios live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, Texas, Arizona recorded the most babies named Ignacio, while Missouri, District of Columbia, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 615 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ignacio
The name Ignacio is of Spanish origin, derived from the Latin name Ignatius, which itself originates from the Roman family name Egnatius. The name Ignatius is thought to come from the Latin word "ignis," meaning "fire." This connection to fire may have been a reference to the ardent or fiery personality associated with individuals bearing this name.
The name Ignatius gained widespread recognition in the early Christian era, particularly through Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who was one of the Apostolic Fathers and the third Bishop of Antioch. He lived in the late first and early second centuries AD and was martyred in Rome around 107 AD. His letters and writings had a significant influence on early Christian theology and practices.
Another notable bearer of the name was Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the Spanish priest and theologian who founded the religious order known as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1534. He was born in 1491 and played a pivotal role in the Catholic Counter-Reformation movement.
In the 16th century, Ignacio de Loyola, a Spanish nobleman and theologian, became a prominent figure in the Catholic Church. He was born in 1491 and is known for founding the Society of Jesus, a religious order dedicated to education and missionary work. Ignacio de Loyola's writings, particularly his book "Spiritual Exercises," had a significant impact on Catholic spirituality.
During the 17th century, Ignacio de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary, traveled to South America and became a renowned figure in the Catholic Church's efforts to evangelize the indigenous populations of the Americas. He was born in 1592 and spent much of his life working among the indigenous communities in present-day Peru and Bolivia.
In the 19th century, Ignacio Zaragoza, a Mexican general and politician, gained fame for his leadership in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, where Mexican forces defeated the French army. This victory is celebrated annually in Mexico as Cinco de Mayo. Ignacio Zaragoza was born in 1829 and is regarded as a national hero in Mexico.
People
Ignacio + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ignacio as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ignacio: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ignacio?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,653 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ignacio 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 21,897 US residents.
Is Ignacio a common name?
We classify Ignacio as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 19,669 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ignacio most popular?
The single biggest year for Ignacio was 2006, when 313 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ignacio is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ignacio in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 35,091 people with the name Ignacio, or 11.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,143 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 Ignacio 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 Ignacio?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ignacio appears almost entirely male. Of the 35,092 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Ignacio?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ignacio is Hispanic at 96.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.3%). 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 Ignacio most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Ignacio in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.3% (33,802 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 Ignacio in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ignacio a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Ignacio 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 Ignacio still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ignacio 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 Ignacio 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 Ignacio?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.