Vito
A masculine Italian name derived from Latin meaning "life".
Name Census estimates that about 7,992 living Americans carry the first name Vito. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Vito today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vito births was 1925 (316 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vito. 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 Vito with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.0K
~ 1 in 42,887 Americans
Peak year
1925
316 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,634
Tracked since 1898
Census
Vito in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,591 people with the first name Vito, which placed it at #2,534 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
#2,534
National first-name rank
People counted
9.6K
9,591 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vito
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vito is White at 87.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%). 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 Vito 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 Vito at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.8% · 8,425
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 769
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 147
- Black or African American1.3% · 122
- Two or more races1.3% · 121
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 7
Popularity
Vito: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vito 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 2,817 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
Vito 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 Vito during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vitos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Illinois recorded the most babies named Vito, while Arizona, Wisconsin, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 815 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vito
The name Vito is a masculine Italian given name derived from the Latin name Vitus. It has its origins dating back to ancient Rome, where it was likely a shortened form of the Roman family name Vitelius or Vitellius.
The Latin name Vitus is believed to be connected to the Latin word "vita," meaning "life." This suggests that the name Vito may have been associated with concepts of vitality, liveliness, or living well. It is also possible that the name has roots in the Latin verb "vivere," meaning "to live."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vitus can be found in the story of Saint Vitus, a Christian saint and martyr from Sicily who lived in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD. The legend of Saint Vitus, who was said to have been a young boy martyred for his faith, likely contributed to the popularity of the name in Catholic regions.
In the Middle Ages, the name Vito appeared in various historical records and documents across Italy. One notable bearer of the name was Vito Pisano, an Italian mathematician and philosopher who lived in the 13th century and made significant contributions to the development of mathematics and arithmetic.
During the Renaissance period, the name Vito gained further prominence in Italy. One of the most famous figures with this name was Vito Accorambuoni, an Italian diplomat and statesman who served as the ambassador of the Republic of Florence to various European courts in the 15th century.
Another notable figure from this era was Vito Liuzzio, an Italian painter and architect who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. He was known for his works in the Calabrian region of Italy, where he designed and constructed several churches and public buildings.
In more recent history, the name Vito has been associated with several influential figures in various fields. One such individual was Vito Volterra, an Italian mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to the fields of mathematical biology and functional analysis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Another notable bearer of the name was Vito Marcantonio, an Italian-American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1935 to 1937 and again from 1939 to 1951. He was a prominent figure in the labor movement and a vocal advocate for civil rights and social justice.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Vito
People
Vito + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vito as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vito: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vito?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,992 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vito 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 42,887 US residents.
Is Vito a common name?
We classify Vito as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,935 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vito most popular?
The single biggest year for Vito was 1925, when 316 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vito is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vito in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,591 people with the name Vito, or 3.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,534 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 Vito 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 Vito?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vito appears almost entirely male. Of the 9,594 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 Vito?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vito is White at 87.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%). 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 Vito most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vito in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.8% (8,425 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 Vito in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vito a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vito 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 Vito still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vito 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 Vito 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 Vito as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.