Inge
Feminine · “belonging to the god Ing”
Inge is two syllables in the languages it comes from and often only one by the time it reaches America. Behind it is a divine name so old that it has a rune named after it, and the Old English poem written to teach the runes gives that rune the strangest verse of the set.
How old is the name Inge?
Inge first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Inge alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 500 people named Inge are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Inge most popular?
Inge peaked in 1931, reaching #1876 nationally. See the whole 1931 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ing to Inge
The story of Inge
The Old English Rune Poem gives each letter a short verse, and most of them are practical or moral — hail is the whitest of grains, a horse is a joy to princes. The verse for the rune named Ing is not like that. It says that Ing was first seen among the East Danes, and then went east over the wave, with his wagon running behind him, and that is what the warriors called the hero. It reads like the compressed remnant of a story the poet expected everyone to know and did not bother to tell, and the story has not survived anywhere else. A wagon appears again in a Roman account of a Germanic deity carried in procession through the countryside on a covered cart, and in Swedish sources about a god drawn about in a wagon, so the image may be a genuine fragment of a very old rite. What is certain is that a name in ordinary use today carries the god's name in it.
Meaning
belonging to the god Ing
The element is the name of a Germanic god associated with fertility and peace, identified in Norse sources with the god otherwise called by a different title. It is the front of Ingrid, Ingeborg, Ingvar and a dozen others; used alone it has been a standing name in Scandinavia and Germany for centuries.
How the name formed
- Ing
- Inge
Related forms: Inge · Inga · Ingunn · Inge
Pronouncing Inge
ING-uh
Two syllables in German and Scandinavian, where the final e is a real vowel. English readers often make it one syllable and rhyme it with sing, which is not the home pronunciation but is what most bearers here answer to.
Nicknames for Inge
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
- 1924
- Most girls named
- 196730 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1876reached in 1931
- Change vs 2015
- 0.0%5 in 2021, from 5
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.
Inge in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Inge in German — same name
- Inga in Swedish — related form
- Ingunn in Norwegian — related form
- Inge in Danish — same name
Inges among us
people named Inge 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
Inge 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
- Four letters, no silent ones, and no possible misspelling once heard.
- It is a real and ordinary name in several European countries, so it travels.
- The element behind it is genuinely ancient and fully documented.
- English speakers will drop the final vowel unless told otherwise.
- Inga will be written for it about as often as Inge.
- It may stand alone or may be the front of a longer name, and the record often cannot tell you which.
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What they receive
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Inge
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Inges are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Inge are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Inge in 2025?
- Inge is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Inge with classmates?
- Inge will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More I names
The most-given names starting with I, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Inge? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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