Spiro
Masculine
The body of Saint Spyridon is carried through the streets of Corfu four times a year, upright in a glass case, in a procession the whole island turns out for. He is credited with saving the town from plague, famine and a Turkish siege, and the islanders talk about him in the present tense.
How old is the name Spiro?
Spiro first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Spiro alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 700 people named Spiro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Spiro most popular?
Spiro peaked in 1970, reaching #1699 nationally. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Greek name with two candidate Latin origins to Spiro
The story of Spiro
The relics came to Corfu in the fifteenth century, carried out of Constantinople ahead of the Ottoman conquest in a sack of straw on a mule. Four processions a year commemorate four occasions when the island believes he intervened, and the islanders' devotion is of a practical kind: an extraordinary proportion of Corfiot men are called Spyros, and his slippers are said to wear out from walking about at night, which is why they are replaced regularly and the old ones cut up as relics.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Greek name has two candidate origins and no resolution: a Latin word for a basket, which would make it an occupational nickname, and the Latin for breath or spirit, which is what most people assume. Neither can be shown. The saint was a Cypriot shepherd who became a bishop and attended the Council of Nicaea, and the name has been one of the commonest on Corfu ever since his relics arrived there.
How the name formed
- a Greek name with two candidate Latin origins
- a Cypriot shepherd becomes a bishop at Nicaea
- his relics reach Corfu in the fifteenth century
- Spyros becomes one of the commonest Corfiot names
- Spiro appears in American records from the 1910s
Related forms: Spyridon · Spyros
Pronouncing Spiro
SPEE-roh
Two syllables, stress at the front, in Greek and in American use alike. The fuller Greek form has three and puts the weight at the back.
Nicknames for Spiro
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 197126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1699reached in 1970
- Change vs 2021
- −16.7%5 in 2024, from 6
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.
Spiro in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Spyridon in Greek — related form
- Spyros in Greek — spelling variant
Spiros among us
people named Spiro 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
Spiro 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
- It is short, distinctive and read correctly at sight.
- It marks a Greek family history clearly and without difficulty.
- It has a genuinely vivid patron saint attached to it.
- For Americans of a certain age the name belongs to a vice-president who resigned in disgrace.
- The meaning is genuinely disputed between a basket and a breath.
- It is rare enough in America to need spelling out constantly.
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Spiro
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Spiros are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Spiro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Spiro in 2025?
- Spiro is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Spiro with classmates?
- Spiro will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Spiro? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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