Primo
Of Italian origin, meaning "first" or "firstborn".
Name Census estimates that about 408 living Americans carry the first name Primo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Primo today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Primo births was 1921 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Primo. 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 Primo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
408
~ 1 in 840,084 Americans
Peak year
1921
31 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,702
Tracked since 1907
Census
Primo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,349 people with the first name Primo, which placed it at #10,027 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
#10,027
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,349 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
56.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Primo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Primo is Hispanic at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.1%) and White (17.0%). 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 Primo 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 Primo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino56.0% · 755
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.1% · 298
- White17.0% · 230
- Two or more races2.5% · 34
- Black or African American2.0% · 27
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
Popularity
Primo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Primo from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 186 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
Primo 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 Primo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Primos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Primo, while Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Primo
The name Primo has its origins in the Italian language. It is derived from the Latin word "primus," meaning "first" or "foremost." The name gained popularity during the Roman era, when it was often used to denote the firstborn son or the eldest child in a family.
In ancient Roman times, the name Primo was associated with concepts of primacy, importance, and superiority. It carried a sense of prestige and distinction. During the Imperial period, several notable Romans bore the name, including Primo Marcellus, a Roman senator and historian who lived in the 1st century AD.
As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the name Primo gained additional significance. It was sometimes bestowed upon children born on the first day of the year or during important religious festivals, symbolizing a fresh start or a new beginning.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Primo can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a military commander named Primo Sulpicius in his work "Ab Urbe Condita" (History of Rome), written in the late 1st century BC.
Throughout history, several prominent figures have borne the name Primo. In the 13th century, Primo Cavalcanti was an Italian philosopher and poet from the city of Florence. He was a close friend of the renowned writer Dante Alighieri and is mentioned in Dante's literary masterpiece, "The Divine Comedy."
During the Renaissance period, Primo Levi was an Italian humanist, scholar, and writer who lived from 1460 to 1528. He is known for his works on philosophy, literature, and Jewish history, and was a prominent figure in the intellectual circles of his time.
In the 19th century, Primo Levi, an Italian chemist and writer, was born in 1919. He survived the Holocaust and gained international recognition for his memoir "If This Is a Man," which detailed his experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.
Another notable figure with the name Primo was Primo Conti, an Italian film director and screenwriter born in 1900. He directed several critically acclaimed films during the Golden Age of Italian cinema, including "Piccolo Mondo Antico" (The Little Old World) and "Eugenia Grandet."
While the name Primo has its roots in Italian culture and language, it has been adopted and used in various other cultures and countries over the centuries, further adding to its rich history and diversity.
People
Primo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Primo as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Primo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Primo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 408 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Primo 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 840,084 US residents.
Is Primo a common name?
We classify Primo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 864 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Primo most popular?
The single biggest year for Primo was 1921, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Primo is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Primo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,349 people with the name Primo, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,027 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 Primo 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 Primo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Primo leans strongly male. 1,340 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 14 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Primo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Primo is Hispanic at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.1%) and White (17.0%). 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 Primo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Primo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.0% (755 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 Primo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Primo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Primo 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 Primo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Primo 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 Primo 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 Primo?
Want to know how many people have the name Primo? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.