Irene
Masculine · “peace”
Irene is given to girls far more often — 355,462 girls against 1,350 boys since 1880. See Irene as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Irene alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 300 people named Irene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Irene most popular?
Irene peaked in 1901, reaching #536 nationally. See the whole 1901 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 192843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #536reached in 1901
- Change vs 1989
- 0.0%5 in 2023, 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.
Irene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eirini in Greek — same name
- Irene in Spanish — same name
- Irina in Russian — related form
Irenes among us
people named Irene 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
Irene 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
- 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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Irene
Masculine
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 300 people named Irene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Irene in 2025?
- Irene is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Irene with classmates?
- Irene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More I names
The most-given names starting with I, all years combined.
Isaac#47 · Ian#83 · Isaiah#57 · Ivan#162 · Israel#315 · Ira#819 · Irving#1778 · Ismael#263
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Irene? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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