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
Census
Medardo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,584 people with the first name Medardo, which placed it at #8,972 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
#8,972
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,584 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
88.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Medardo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Medardo is Hispanic at 88.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.7%) and White (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 Medardo 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 Medardo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino88.6% · 1,404
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.7% · 154
- White1.3% · 20
- Black or African American0.2% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
- Two or more races0.1% · 1
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.
How common was Medardo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,584 people with the name Medardo, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,972 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 Medardo 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 Medardo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Medardo appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,583 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 Medardo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Medardo is Hispanic at 88.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.7%) and White (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 Medardo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Medardo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.6% (1,404 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 Medardo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Medardo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Medardo 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 Medardo 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 common is the name Medardo?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.