Ivo
Masculine · “Germanic "yew”
Ivo is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 849 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Ivo is a yew-tree name, and the yew mattered because bows were made from it. The Germanic element iv- names the wood, and it produced Ivo, Yves, Ives and Ivor — a small family of names all pointing at the same tree and, behind it, the same weapon.
How old is the name Ivo?
Ivo first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Ivo alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 500 people named Ivo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ivo most popular?
Ivo peaked in 1894, reaching #1074 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 6,120 places below that high. See the whole 1894 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From īwaz to Ivo
The story of Ivo
Ivo was carried across Europe by two saints in particular: Ivo of Chartres, an eleventh-century bishop and canon lawyer, and Yves of Kermartin, the thirteenth-century Breton lawyer who became the patron saint of lawyers. That gave the name a strong Breton, French and Low Countries footprint. It reached America mainly with Central and Southern European immigration — it is a standard name in Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal and Germany — and the American figures peak in 1894, at the height of that immigration, then fade as the second generation anglicized.
Meaning
Germanic "yew"
From Proto-Germanic īwaz, yew, the wood from which longbows were made. Ivo is the Continental Germanic short form, with the -o ending of the weak masculine declension; the Norman French development gave Yves and Ives, and the English surname Ivison and place name St Ives descend from the same source. A separate Breton and Welsh line has been proposed for some bearers, and Ivo has also been used as a Latinized form of Slavic Ivan, which is a different name entirely.
How the name formed
- īwaz
- Ivo
- Yves
Related forms: Yves · Ivo · Ivo · Erwan
Pronouncing Ivo
EE-voh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long ee. German and Croatian say EE-vo; English speakers sometimes say EYE-vo, which is not the established pronunciation anywhere the name is native.
Nicknames for Ivo
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
- 1894
- Most boys named
- 202318 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1074reached in 1894
- Change vs 2023
- −38.9%11 in 2025, from 18
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.
Ivo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yves in French — same name
- Ivo in Croatian — same name
- Ivo in German — same name
- Erwan in Breton — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Ivos among us
people named Ivo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Ivo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ivo sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Ivo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ivo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters, two syllables, and settled in half a dozen European countries.
- The etymology is clear and concrete: a tree, and the bows made from it.
- It is short without being a clipping of anything.
- American speakers frequently say EYE-vo on first sight.
- It is often assumed to be a short form of Ivan, which it is not.
- It has been rare in the United States for over a century.
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Ivo
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ivos 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 Ivo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ivo in 2025?
- Ivo ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ivo?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Ivo — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ivo with classmates?
- Ivo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ivo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ivo? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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