Diego
Masculine
Diego is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 126,160 boys against 245 girls since 1880.
Diego has been carried by a muralist, a painter of royal courts, and a footballer whose two goals in one match are still argued about — and long before any of them, by a fifteenth-century Franciscan friar whose name a California mission and then a city took as its own. It is two beats in Spanish, three in most English mouths, and it lands the same way every time.
How old is the name Diego?
Diego first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Diego alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 124,000 people named Diego are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Diego most popular?
Diego peaked in 2006, reaching #56 nationally. Today it ranks #158, 102 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ya'aqov to Diego
The story of Diego
Diego is Spanish through and through, and its history is bound up with the cult of Saint James at Compostela, whose Spanish name Santiago was long heard and written as a single word before being split apart again. By the medieval period Diego was in steady use across Castile and Galicia, and it traveled with Spanish speakers to the Americas and to the Philippines. Diego de Alcalá, a Franciscan lay brother canonized in the sixteenth century, gave his name to a mission in Alta California and, through it, to the city of San Diego. In the United States the name has been on record for well over a century, and it remains strongest in the states with the deepest Spanish-speaking histories.
Meaningscholars disagree
Two competing readings: 'supplanter' (via Jacob/James) or 'teaching'
The leading account traces Diego to Iago, the Spanish form of Jacob and James, arrived at by splitting Santiago (Sant' Iago, 'Saint James') — which would put the Hebrew Ya'aqov at the far end of the line. The competing account derives it from the Latin Didacus, itself linked to Greek didache, 'teaching'. Historically Didacus was used as the formal Latin equivalent of Diego in church records, which is part of why the question stays open.
Cultural footprint
Diego Maradona (b. 1960) — Soccer god of the "Hand of God" and the Goal of the Century
Diego Rivera (b. 1886) — Muralist giant, Frida Kahlo's husband
Diego Velázquez (b. 1599) — Painted Las Meninas
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Ya'aqov
- Iakobos
- Iacobus
- Iago
- Diego
Related forms: Diogo · Didacus · Dídac · Santiago · James · Giacomo
Pronouncing Diego
dee-AY-go
In Spanish it is two syllables, closer to DYEH-go, with the stress on the first. Both are widely heard in the US and neither causes confusion; the spelling gives no trouble either way.
Nicknames for Diego
Moderate
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
- 1887
- Most boys named
- 20068,403 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #56reached in 2006
- Change vs 2023
- −14.4%2,351 in 2025, from 2,747
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.
Diego in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Diogo in Portuguese — same name
- Didacus in Latin — related form
- Dídac in Catalan — related form
- Santiago in Spanish — related form
- James in English — related form
- Giacomo in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Diegos among us
people named Diego are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 727 born in 2025 was named Diego
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 Glenn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Diego's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Glenn climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Glenn's path sketches the road Diego is walking now.
Diego is coming down from a big peak (#56 in 2006). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Diego is headed
Diego 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.
Diego beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Diego in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling, everywhere it goes. Diego is written the same in Spanish, Portuguese-adjacent contexts and English, with no variant competing for it.
- Recognizable across the Spanish-speaking world and beyond it, with direct equivalents in Portuguese, Catalan and Latin.
- A documented record stretching back to medieval Castile, and on US birth records for well over a century.
- Short enough to need no nickname, with Dieguito available in families that want one.
- Carried by a painter, a muralist and a footballer of the first rank, so it arrives already familiar to most adults.
- It is strongly and openly a Spanish name. For a family with no connection to Spanish-speaking heritage, that is not a barrier, but it will invite the occasional question about where the name came from.
- There is almost nothing to shorten. Parents who like having a formal name and a play name will find Diego is already both, unless Dieguito suits the household.
- A generation of American children met the name first through a cartoon explorer. That association fades as those viewers grow up, but it is still live for some ears.
- The name is currently easing back from its high point, so a Diego is likely to be the only one in his class rather than one of several.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Diego
Masculine · #158 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Diegos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 124,000 people named Diego are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Diego in 2025?
- Diego ranks #158 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,351 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Diego?
- About 1 in every 727 US boys born in 2025 was named Diego — 2,351 in all.
- Will my child share the name Diego with classmates?
- Diego will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Diego
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Juan#159 · Colter#157 · Jaxson#156 · Elliott#160 · Jude#155 · Hayden#161 · Hayes#162 · Emilio#154
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Diego? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Diego and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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