Iantha
Feminine · “violet flower”
Iantha is the American form of Ianthe, a Greek name for the violet flower that the Romantic poets loved. Shelley put an Ianthe in his first long poem and gave the name to his first daughter; Byron wrote a dedication 'To Ianthe'; and Ovid, long before either, told the story of an Ianthe on the eve of her wedding.
How old is the name Iantha?
Iantha first appears in US birth records in 1906 — 119 years ago. The typical Iantha alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 200 people named Iantha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Iantha most popular?
Iantha peaked in 1906, reaching #1553 nationally. See the whole 1906 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Greek ion and anthos to Iantha
The story of Iantha
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Ianthe is the bride promised to Iphis, a girl raised as a boy because her father had ordered that a daughter be put to death; on the eve of the wedding the goddess Isis turns Iphis into a young man, and the marriage goes ahead. The Romantics took the name up. Percy Bysshe Shelley made Ianthe the sleeping girl whose spirit Queen Mab carries off on a journey through the universe, and in the year the poem was printed he named his first child Ianthe. Byron addressed the dedication of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage to a young girl he called Ianthe. From that poetry the name crossed to America, where one of its spellings was Iantha.
Meaning
violet flower
Ianthe joins the Greek ion, 'violet', to anthos, 'flower'. Iantha is the same name with the -a ending that English gives most girls' names.
How the name formed
- Greek ion and anthos
- Ianthe
- Iantha
Related forms: Ianthe
Pronouncing Iantha
eye-AN-thuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. The th is the th of thin.
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
- 1906
- Most girls named
- 191516 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1553reached in 1906
- Change vs 1981
- −16.7%5 in 1983, from 6
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.
Iantha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ianthe in Greek — same name
Ianthas among us
people named Iantha are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Iantha sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Has a settled Greek meaning, violet flower.
- Carries a real literary history, from Ovid to Shelley and Byron.
- Three syllables with a clear stress, and one pronunciation once heard.
- People will see Ian at the front and may stumble or say ee-AN-tha; it will need saying aloud once.
- Ianthe, the Greek spelling, is the form the poets used, so some will correct the ending.
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What they receive
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Iantha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Ianthas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Iantha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Iantha in 2025?
- Iantha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Iantha with classmates?
- Iantha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More I names
The most-given names starting with I, all years combined.
Isabella#7 · Irene#651 · Ida#1120 · Isabel#176 · Isabelle#166 · Iris#61 · Ivy#39 · Irma#3167
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Iantha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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