Irene
Feminine · “peace”
Irene is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 355,462 girls against 1,350 boys since 1880. See Irene as a boy name
Irene is the Greek word for peace, and the Greeks made a goddess of her and gave her a statue worth describing. She is shown as a young woman holding a baby, and the baby is Wealth: peace nursing prosperity, which is about as direct as a piece of public sculpture can be without a caption.
How old is the name Irene?
Irene was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Irene alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 103,000 people named Irene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Irene most popular?
Irene peaked in 1918, reaching #16 nationally. Today it ranks #651, 635 places below that high. See the whole 1918 chart.
Where it comes from
From The Greek common noun for peace to Irene
The story of Irene
Three sisters were executed at Thessalonica during the last great persecution for refusing to give up their books. The order had gone out that Christian writings were to be surrendered and burned, and the sisters had hidden a collection of them; the surviving account of their trial is unusually detailed, and much of it is the interrogation of the youngest about where the books were and who had helped her. Two were burned; she was killed afterwards. The name belongs to that youngest sister, and the case is one of the few from the persecutions where the charge is documented and specific: not belief, not refusal to sacrifice, but the possession of texts.
Meaning
peace
The Greek word is the ordinary term for peace, still current in modern Greek, and the reading is settled. It was a personal name in antiquity as well as an abstraction, which is unusual: most Greek names are compounds, and a bare common noun used as a name stands out in that company.
How the name formed
- The Greek common noun for peace
- A goddess with a statue of peace holding wealth
- An early Christian name across the Greek world
- Irene in English use since the Renaissance
Related forms: Eirini · Irene · Irina
Pronouncing Irene
eye-REEN
Two syllables in America with the stress in the middle. Greek, Italian and German all say it with three and sound the final vowel, so a bearer traveling in Europe will hear her name given an extra syllable everywhere she goes.
Nicknames for Irene
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
- 192110,624 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #16reached in 1918
- Change vs 2022
- −1.3%442 in 2025, from 448
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.
Irene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eirini in Greek — same name
- Irene in Spanish — same name
- Irina in Russian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Irenes among us
people named Irene are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,636 born in 2025 was named Irene
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 Gladys test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Irene's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gladys climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gladys's path sketches the road Irene is walking now.
Irene has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Irene is headed
Irene should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Irene beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Irene in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single word and is the same in modern Greek today.
- It is used essentially unchanged across most of Europe.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- The two-syllable and three-syllable readings are both correct somewhere.
- It is strongly associated with the earlier twentieth century.
- Irena and Irina are close enough to be written for it constantly.
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What they receive
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Irene
Feminine · #651 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Irenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 103,000 people named Irene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Irene in 2025?
- Irene ranks #651 among US girl names in 2025, with 442 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Irene?
- About 1 in every 3,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Irene — 442 in all.
- Will my child share the name Irene with classmates?
- Irene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Irene
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alara#652 · Andie#650 · Rosa#652 · Shelby#649 · Miranda#654 · Gloria#654 · Eileen#654 · Galilea#647
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Irene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Irene and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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