Irasema
Feminine
Irasema comes from a book, and the book was written to give a country a founding story it did not have. That is an unusual errand for a name to be on, and it explains why the name is common in one part of the world and almost unknown everywhere else.
How old is the name Irasema?
Irasema first appears in US birth records in 1953 — 72 years ago. The typical Irasema alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 900 people named Irasema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Irasema most popular?
Irasema peaked in 1957, reaching #1957 nationally. See the whole 1957 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From The eighteen-sixties: a Brazilian novelist invents the name for a heroine to Irasema
The story of Irasema
José de Alencar published Iracema in the eighteen-sixties, at a point when Brazil had been independent for a generation and was actively looking for a national literature that was not Portuguese. His answer was to write the country's founding as a romance: an indigenous woman and a Portuguese soldier, their love, her death, and their son — the first Brazilian, born of both and belonging to neither side. It is a colonial story told as a love story, and it has been read that way admiringly and critically ever since; what nobody disputes is its reach. Iracema became a standard name in Brazil and traveled across Latin America, so that a novel's invention is now carried by women whose families have never heard of the novelist. The spelling with an s is the version that turns up in Mexican and American records.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name was invented for a novel, and the novelist offered a gloss for it in an indigenous Brazilian language — usually rendered as lips of honey. That gloss has been questioned by later scholars, who point out that the author was working from vocabularies rather than from speakers, and that the name's construction serves his literary purposes better than it serves the grammar of the language it claims. So the meaning circulates widely and rests on the word of the man who made the name up.
How the name formed
- The eighteen-sixties: a Brazilian novelist invents the name for a heroine
- The novel is adopted as a national founding romance
- Iracema becomes an ordinary given name across Brazil
- The spelling Irasema appears in Mexican and American records
Related forms: Iracema · Iracema
Pronouncing Irasema
ee-rah-SAY-mah
Four syllables with the stress on the third. Portuguese and Spanish speakers agree on that placement; American speakers sometimes move it forward to the second, ih-RASS-uh-muh, which flattens the name considerably.
Nicknames for Irasema
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
- 1953
- Most girls named
- 199640 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1957reached in 1957
- Change vs 2013
- 0.0%5 in 2016, 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.
Irasema in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Iracema in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Iracema in Spanish — spelling variant
Irasemas among us
people named Irasema 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
Irasema 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
- A long, musical name with an unusually clear literary origin
- Well established across Latin America, so it is not an invention without a home
- Short forms available at both ends, each with a different character
- The Brazilian spelling uses a c, so the name will be written both ways depending on who is writing.
- The meaning attached to it comes from the novelist rather than from the language he borrowed, which is worth telling a child honestly.
- Four syllables is a lot for American daily use, and the short form will do most of the work.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Irasema to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Irasema? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Irasema
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Irasemas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Irasema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Irasema in 2025?
- Irasema is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Irasema with classmates?
- Irasema 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 Irasema? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Irasema and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle