Imogene
Feminine · “maiden”
Imogene is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 27,901 girls against 55 boys since 1880.
Imogene exists because of a printer's error. Shakespeare wrote a British princess called Innogen; a compositor set an m for the double n, and the mistake became one of the more attractive names in English.
How old is the name Imogene?
Imogene was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Imogene alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 5,900 people named Imogene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Imogene most popular?
Imogene peaked in 1927, reaching #157 nationally. Today it ranks #2514, 2,357 places below that high. See the whole 1927 chart.
Imogene appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Innogen to Imogene
The story of Imogene
Holinshed's chronicles give a British queen named Innogen, and Shakespeare took the name for the heroine of Cymbeline around 1610. The First Folio prints it as Imogen, almost certainly a compositor's misreading of the double n, and the misprint became the standard form. The Imogene spelling is the American one, and it peaked around 1920.
Meaningscholars disagree
maiden, girl
The original Innogen is generally read from the Irish inghean, 'maiden' or 'daughter' — the name appears in the British legendary histories. Imogen as printed has no meaning of its own, since it descends from a misprint. Later attempts to connect it to the Latin imago are reconstructions of the error rather than of the name.
How the name formed
- Innogen
- Imogen
- Imogene
Related forms: Imogen · Innogen
Pronouncing Imogene
IM-uh-jeen
Three syllables, stress on the first. The British Imogen ends in a lighter -jen instead.
Nicknames for Imogene
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19261,253 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #157reached in 1927
- Change vs 2022
- −2.8%70 in 2025, from 72
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.
Imogene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Imogen in English — spelling variant
- Innogen in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Colorado, California.
Imogenes among us
people named Imogene are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 22,961 born in 2025 was named Imogene
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 Elva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Imogene's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elva climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elva's path sketches the road Imogene is walking now.
Imogene 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 Imogene is headed
Imogene should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Imogene beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Imogene in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The misprint origin is a genuinely remarkable and well-documented piece of literary history.
- Shakespeare's Imogen is one of his most admired heroines.
- Immy and Genie are two short forms at very different registers.
- The name is, strictly, an error — which some families will find charming and others will not.
- The British Imogen and the American Imogene differ in the final syllable.
- It is period-coded to the early twentieth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Imogene
Feminine · #2514 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Imogenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Imogene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Imogene in 2025?
- Imogene ranks #2514 among US girl names in 2025, with 70 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Imogene?
- About 1 in every 22,961 US girls born in 2025 was named Imogene — 70 in all.
- Will my child share the name Imogene with classmates?
- Imogene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Imogene
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Gracyn#2514 · Maysen#2514 · Orla#2514 · Syeda#2514 · Annalisa#2514 · Nazareth#2514 · Susannah#2514 · Winnifred#2514
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Imogene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Imogene and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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