Irene
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "peace".
Name Census estimates that about 86,627 living Americans carry the first name Irene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Irene today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Irene births was 1921 (10,657 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Irene. 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 Irene with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Irene is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,350 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Irene have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
87K
~ 1 in 3,957 Americans
Peak year
1921
10,657 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2023 SSA rank
#638
Tracked since 1880
Census
Irene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 143,807 people with the first name Irene, which placed it at #394 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
#394
National first-name rank
People counted
144K
143,807 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
47.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Irene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Irene is White at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Irene 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 Irene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.4% · 73,951
- Hispanic or Latino30.2% · 43,462
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.3% · 11,903
- Black or African American7.9% · 11,394
- Two or more races1.3% · 1,836
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,261
Gender
Gender distribution for Irene
Out of the 356,354 babies given the name Irene since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Irene as a male name
- Ranked #12,954 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1928 (43 births)
Irene as a female name
- Ranked #638 in 2024
- 461 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (10,624 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Irene appears almost entirely female. Of the 143,800 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Irene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Irene from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 93,192 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Irene 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 Irene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Irenes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Irene, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,090 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Irene
The name Irene traces its origins to the Greek word "eirene", meaning peace. It is derived from the Greek goddess of peace, Eirene, who was one of the Horae, the personifications of order in nature and the seasons. The name first emerged in ancient Greece during the classical period.
Eirene was a prominent figure in Greek mythology, often depicted carrying a cornucopia and sceptre. As the goddess of peace, she represented the peaceful times between wars and conflicts. Her name was given to mortal women as a symbol of tranquility and serenity.
The name Irene gained popularity in the early Christian era, as it was borne by several early Christian saints and martyrs. One of the most notable was Saint Irene of Rome, who lived in the 4th century AD and is venerated as a martyr in the Roman Catholic Church.
In the Byzantine Empire, the name Irene was particularly popular among the imperial family. The most famous bearer was Empress Irene of Athens, who ruled as the first female monarch of the Byzantine Empire from 797 to 802 AD. She played a significant role in restoring the veneration of icons during the iconoclastic controversy.
Another notable historical figure named Irene was Irene of Hungary, a 12th-century Byzantine empress who was the wife of Emperor John II Komnenos. She was known for her diplomatic skills and played an influential role in the affairs of the empire.
In the 19th century, the name Irene gained popularity in English-speaking countries, partly due to the influence of the Greek myth and its association with peace. One famous bearer was Irene Foote (1821-1912), an American educator and advocate for women's rights.
Another notable Irene was Irene Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), a French chemist and physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for her work on artificial radioactivity. She was the daughter of the famous scientists Marie and Pierre Curie.
Throughout history, the name Irene has been associated with qualities of peace, serenity, and tranquility, reflecting its origins in Greek mythology. Its enduring popularity across cultures and eras is a testament to the universal appeal of these ideals.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Irene
People
Irene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Irene 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
Irene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Irene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 86,627 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Irene 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 3,957 US residents.
Is Irene a common name?
We classify Irene as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 356,354 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Irene most popular?
The single biggest year for Irene was 1921, when 10,657 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Irene is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Irene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 143,807 people with the name Irene, or 47.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #394 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 Irene 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 Irene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Irene appears almost entirely female. Of the 143,800 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Irene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Irene is White at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Irene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Irene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.4% (73,951 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 Irene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Irene a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Irene in the SSA data are female. 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 Irene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Irene 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 Irene 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 Irene?
Want to know how many people share the name Irene? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.