Ivo
Ivo is a masculine Germanic name meaning "archer" or "bowman".
Name Census estimates that about 516 living Americans carry the first name Ivo. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Ivo today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ivo births was 1922 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ivo. 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 Ivo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
516
~ 1 in 664,253 Americans
Peak year
1922
19 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,176
Tracked since 1894
Census
Ivo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,648 people with the first name Ivo, which placed it at #8,722 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
#8,722
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,648 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ivo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivo is White at 67.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.3%) and Black (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 Ivo 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 Ivo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.2% · 1,108
- Hispanic or Latino20.3% · 335
- Black or African American8.3% · 137
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 40
- Two or more races1.5% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Ivo
Out of the 842 babies given the name Ivo since 1880, 99.4% 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.
Ivo as a male name
- Ranked #5,292 in 2024
- 18 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1922 (19 births)
Ivo as a female name
- Ranked #5,176 in 1918
- 5 female births in 1918
- Peak: 1918 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ivo leans strongly male. 1,623 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 33 female bearers (2.0%).
Popularity
Ivo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ivo from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 124 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Ivo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ivo 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 Ivo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ivos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ivo
The name Ivo has its origins in the Slavic languages, particularly in the regions of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. It is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "ivŭ," which means "yew tree" or "made of yew wood." The yew tree held significant cultural and symbolic importance in ancient Slavic mythology and folklore.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ivo dates back to the 9th century, when it appeared in Old Church Slavonic manuscripts and historical chronicles. During the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity among Slavic populations, particularly in regions such as Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria.
In the 11th century, a prominent Croatian nobleman named Ivo Bribirski played a significant role in the political affairs of the Kingdom of Croatia. He was a powerful feudal lord and a member of the influential Šubić family, which ruled over parts of Dalmatia and Bosnia.
Another notable individual with the name Ivo was Ivo of Chartres, a French philosopher and theologian who lived in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. He was an influential figure in the development of scholastic philosophy and is remembered for his contributions to the study of logic and metaphysics.
During the Renaissance period, Ivo Andrić, a renowned Yugoslav novelist and poet, was born in 1892 in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Serbo-Croatian language and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961 for his novel "The Bridge on the Drina."
In the 20th century, Ivo Lola Ribar was a prominent Croatian politician and one of the founders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. He served as the first Prime Minister of the Yugoslav government in 1945 and played a crucial role in the country's post-World War II reconstruction efforts.
Another notable figure with the name Ivo was Ivo Josipović, a Croatian lawyer and politician who served as the President of Croatia from 2010 to 2015. He was known for his efforts to promote democracy, human rights, and Croatia's integration into the European Union.
People
Ivo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ivo 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
Ivo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ivo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 516 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ivo 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 664,253 US residents.
Is Ivo a common name?
We classify Ivo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 842 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ivo most popular?
The single biggest year for Ivo was 1922, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ivo is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ivo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,648 people with the name Ivo, or 0.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,722 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 Ivo 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 Ivo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ivo leans strongly male. 1,623 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 33 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Ivo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivo is White at 67.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.3%) and Black (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 Ivo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ivo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.2% (1,108 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 Ivo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ivo a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Ivo 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 Ivo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ivo 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 Ivo 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 Ivo as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.