Medardo
A given name of Italian origin bearing the meaning "brave bear".
Name Census estimates that about 297 living Americans carry the first name Medardo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Medardo today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Medardo births was 1998 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Medardo. 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
297
~ 1 in 1,154,055 Americans
Peak year
1998
16 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,500
Tracked since 1915
Popularity
Medardo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Medardo from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 78 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Medardo 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 Medardo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Medardos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Medardo
The given name Medardo finds its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old High German word "mĕd" meaning "reward" or "payment" and the suffix "-hard" meaning "brave" or "hardy." It was a popular name among the Germanic tribes during the Early Middle Ages, particularly in areas of present-day Germany and the Low Countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Medardo can be found in the 9th-century Vita Sancti Medardi, a hagiography detailing the life of Saint Medard, the Bishop of Noyon and Tournai. Saint Medard lived from around 456 to 545 AD and is venerated in the Catholic Church for his charitable works and miracles.
Another notable figure bearing the name Medardo was Medardo de Suvero, an Italian-American sculptor known for his large-scale abstract steel sculptures. He was born in 1923 and passed away in 2022, leaving behind a significant artistic legacy and numerous public installations across the United States and Europe.
In the realm of literature, Medardo was the name of a character in the 19th-century novel "Cuore" by Edmondo De Amicis, which depicted the lives of schoolchildren in Italy during the late 19th century.
Moving on to the 20th century, Medardo Ángel Silva was a prominent Colombian poet and writer born in 1918. He was renowned for his contributions to the modernist literary movement in Latin America and received numerous accolades for his work, including the National Poetry Prize of Colombia.
Finally, Medardo Rosso was an Italian sculptor active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for his innovative use of wax and plaster in creating impressionistic sculptures that captured the fleeting moments of movement and light.
While the name Medardo may not be as widely used today as it once was, its rich history and connections to notable figures from various fields serve as a testament to its enduring significance and cultural heritage.
People
Medardo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Medardo as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Medardo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Medardo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 297 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Medardo 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 1,154,055 US residents.
Is Medardo a common name?
We classify Medardo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 377 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Medardo most popular?
The single biggest year for Medardo was 1998, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Medardo is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Medardo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Medardo 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.
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.