Imre
A masculine Hungarian name derived from the Old German name Emerich.
Name Census estimates that about 170 living Americans carry the first name Imre. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Imre today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Imre births was 2023 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Imre. 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 Imre with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
170
~ 1 in 2,016,202 Americans
Peak year
2023
12 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,419
Tracked since 1958
Census
Imre in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 597 people with the first name Imre, which placed it at #18,138 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
#18,138
National first-name rank
People counted
597
597 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Imre
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Imre is White at 88.8%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Imre 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 Imre at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.8% · 530
- Black or African American4.0% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 22
- Two or more races3.0% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 1
Popularity
Imre: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Imre from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 53 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Imre 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 Imre during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Imre
The name Imre originated from the Hungarian language, derived from the Germanic name Emmerich or Emeric, which in turn came from the ancient German name Amalrich. The name Amalrich is a combination of the Germanic words "amal" meaning "work" or "labor," and "ric" meaning "power" or "rule." This suggests that the name Imre may have initially carried connotations of someone who worked with authority or ruled through their efforts.
The earliest recorded use of the name Imre dates back to the 11th century in Hungary, where it was borne by Saint Emeric (also known as Imre), the son of King Stephen I of Hungary. Saint Emeric lived from around 1007 to 1031 and was known for his piety, education, and charity. His name became popular in Hungary and other Central European regions influenced by Hungarian culture.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Imre was Imre Nagy, a Hungarian communist politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Imre Nagy was born in 1896 and executed in 1958 after being condemned for his role in the uprising against Soviet occupation.
Another prominent individual bearing the name was Imre Kertész, a Hungarian author and Holocaust survivor who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002. Imre Kertész was born in 1929 and passed away in 2016, and his works explored themes of totalitarianism, personal identity, and the human experience during the Holocaust.
In the realm of science, Imre Lakatos was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his contributions to the philosophy of science and his theory of research programmes. He lived from 1922 to 1974 and is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the field of scientific methodology.
Another notable figure was Imre Madách, a Hungarian dramatist and poet best known for his play "The Tragedy of Man," which explored philosophical themes of human existence and the meaning of life. Imre Madách lived from 1823 to 1864 and is regarded as one of the greatest Hungarian writers.
These are just a few examples of prominent individuals throughout history who bore the name Imre, a name with roots in ancient Germanic and Hungarian cultures, and a rich history spanning centuries.
People
Imre + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Imre 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
Imre: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Imre?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 170 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Imre 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 2,016,202 US residents.
Is Imre a common name?
We classify Imre as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 181 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Imre most popular?
The single biggest year for Imre was 2023, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Imre is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Imre in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 597 people with the name Imre, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,138 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 Imre 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 Imre?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Imre leans strongly male. 582 people counted with this name were male (96.7%), compared with 20 female bearers (3.3%). 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 Imre?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Imre is White at 88.8%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Imre most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Imre in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.8% (530 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 Imre in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Imre a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Imre 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 Imre still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Imre 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 Imre 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 Imre?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Imre, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.