Arturo
Masculine · “Bear”
Arturo is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 57,082 boys against 209 girls since 1880.
Arturo is the Spanish and Italian form of Arthur, a name carried out of Britain by medieval romance and settled into the mouths of Rome, Madrid and Mexico City until it sounded native there. Three open syllables, the stress landing squarely in the middle: ar-TOO-ro. It is also the Spanish and Italian name of Arcturus, the orange star that sits at the tail of the Great Bear.
How old is the name Arturo?
Arturo first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Arturo alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 49,500 people named Arturo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arturo most popular?
Arturo peaked in 1990, reaching #259 nationally. Today it ranks #627, 368 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Arturo appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Artorius / Arthur to Arturo
The story of Arturo
The name enters the record in early Welsh and Latin writing about a British war leader, and the ninth-century Historia Brittonum names him. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written in the twelfth century, turned that figure into a king, and French romance carried the story to every court in Europe within a generation or two. Italian and Iberian retellings needed a form their own tongues could hold, and Arturo is what they made — the same name, resoled for a different road. It has been in continuous use in Spanish and Italian ever since, and reached the United States with Spanish-speaking and Italian-speaking families over a century ago.
Meaningscholars disagree
Bear, or a Roman family name of unclear sense
Two serious readings compete behind Arthur, and neither has won. One takes it from the Roman family name Artorius, whose own meaning is lost. The other takes it from a Celtic root for 'bear' — Welsh arth — possibly joined to a word for 'king' or 'man'. A separate Greek name, Arktouros, 'guardian of the bear', gave the star Arcturus, and the two have shadowed each other for centuries without being the same word.
How the name formed
- Artorius / Arthur
- ArthurOld French romance
- Artù / Artur
- Arturo
Related forms: Arthur · Artur · Artù · Artair · Artūras · Артур (Artur)
Pronouncing Arturo
ar-TOO-ro
Stress on the middle syllable in Spanish, Italian and English alike. The Spanish r is a single tap, and the final vowel is a clean 'oh' rather than a drawl; American speakers who soften both are still saying the name recognizably.
Nicknames for Arturo
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1898
- Most boys named
- 20051,093 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #259reached in 1990
- Change vs 2023
- −1.1%446 in 2025, from 451
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Arturo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Arthur in English — same name
- Artur in Portuguese — same name
- Artù in Italian — related form
- Artair in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Artūras in Lithuanian — same name
- Артур (Artur) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Arizona.
Arturos among us
people named Arturo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,830 born in 2025 was named Arturo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Clay test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arturo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clay climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clay's path sketches the road Arturo is walking now.
Arturo sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Arturo is headed
Arturo should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Arturo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arturo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in Spanish, Italian and English, with Arthur, Artur and Artair as recognized counterparts elsewhere.
- Spelled the way it sounds in both Spanish and English — no silent letters, no competing variants to correct.
- On US records for well over a century without ever disappearing, so it reads as established rather than new.
- Established short forms already exist: Turo among Spanish speakers, Art or Arty in English.
- English speakers who know Arthur may reach for it by reflex, and a child called Arturo can spend some years correcting teachers who default to the English form or clip straight to Art.
- The double r-and-o ending invites Artur, Arthuro and Aturo on forms — usually fixed in one breath, but it will come up.
- Recognizable everywhere, yet a child is unlikely to meet another one in a classroom. That suits some families and not others; it is worth deciding which you are.
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What they receive
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Arturo
Masculine · #627 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arturos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 49,500 people named Arturo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arturo in 2025?
- Arturo ranks #627 among US boy names in 2025, with 446 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arturo?
- About 1 in every 3,830 US boys born in 2025 was named Arturo — 446 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arturo with classmates?
- Arturo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arturo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jayceon#628 · Sincere#628 · Kenzo#628 · Danny#628 · Hassan#625 · Gustavo#625 · Koen#622 · Dominick#622
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arturo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arturo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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