Indigo
Masculine · “from India”
Indigo is given to both — 1,222 boys and 4,020 girls since 1880. See Indigo as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Indigo is a color named for a country — the Greeks called the dye indikon, the Indian thing, because that is where the plant and the trade came from.
How old is the name Indigo?
Indigo first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Indigo is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Indigo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Indigo most popular?
Indigo peaked in 2022, reaching #1523 nationally. Today it ranks #1529, 6 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Indigo appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From indikon to Indigo
The story of Indigo
Indigo was among the most valuable trade goods of the early modern world — the reason for plantations, monopolies and at least one English trade war — until synthetic dye replaced it in the 1890s. Color word-names rose in American use from the 1990s alongside Sage, Rowan and Wren, and Indigo appears for both sexes, rising through the 2010s.
Meaning
from India; the blue dye
From the Greek indikon, 'Indian', through the Latin indicum and the Spanish índigo. The dye comes from Indigofera plants and reached the Mediterranean by way of Indian trade, so the name records its route rather than its color. The meaning is documented and undisputed.
How the name formed
- indikon
- indicum
- índigo
- Indigo
Related forms: Índigo · Indaco · Indigo
Pronouncing Indigo
IN-dih-goh
Three syllables, stress on the first. It is a homophone of the ordinary English color word.
Nicknames for Indigo
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
- 1994
- Most boys named
- 2022118 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1523reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +6.6%113 in 2025, from 106
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.
Indigo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Índigo in Spanish — same name
- Indaco in Italian — related form
- Indigo in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Indigos among us
people named Indigo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 15,116 born in 2025 was named Indigo
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 Lancer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Indigo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lancer climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lancer's path sketches the road Indigo is walking now.
Indigo is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Indigo is headed
Indigo looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Indigo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Indigo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Indian-trade etymology is concrete and genuinely interesting.
- It belongs to a coherent and current family of color names.
- Indy is available as a short form with real currency.
- It is an ordinary English noun and never reads as purely a name.
- It is thoroughly unisex and does not signal sex on paper.
- The dye's history is entangled with plantation labor, which some families will weigh.
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What they receive
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Indigo
Masculine · #1529 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Indigos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Indigo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Indigo in 2025?
- Indigo ranks #1529 among US boy names in 2025, with 113 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Indigo?
- About 1 in every 15,116 US boys born in 2025 was named Indigo — 113 in all.
- Will my child share the name Indigo with classmates?
- Indigo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Indigo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Percival#1529 · Daylen#1529 · Khari#1529 · Terrell#1529 · Nestor#1529 · Manolo#1529 · Skylar#1529 · Daryl#1529
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Indigo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Indigo and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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