Americo
A masculine name of Roman origin related to the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
Name Census estimates that about 1,113 living Americans carry the first name Americo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Americo today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Americo births was 1922 (106 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Americo. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 307,955 Americans
Peak year
1922
106 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,926
Tracked since 1904
Census
Americo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,294 people with the first name Americo, which placed it at #6,850 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,850
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,294 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
59.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Americo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Americo is Hispanic at 59.7%. The next largest groups are White (37.2%) and Black (1.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Americo described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Americo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino59.7% · 1,370
- White37.2% · 853
- Black or African American1.7% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 12
- Two or more races0.5% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 7
Popularity
Americo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Americo from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 822 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Americo by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Americo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Americos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Americo, while West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 130 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Americo
The given name Americo has its origins in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, derived from the Italian name Amerigo, which itself is a variant of the Germanic name Emmerich or Amalric. The name Americo traces its roots back to the 15th and 16th centuries, when European explorers were venturing across the Atlantic and encountering the Americas for the first time.
One of the earliest and most notable references to the name Americo is its connection to the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, after whom the continents of North and South America were named. Vespucci was born in 1454 in Florence, Italy, and made several voyages across the Atlantic between 1497 and 1504, exploring the coastlines of present-day Brazil and Venezuela. His accounts of these voyages and the new lands he encountered contributed to the recognition of the Americas as separate continents, distinct from Asia.
The name Americo gained popularity in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions, particularly in Latin America, where it was bestowed upon numerous historical figures. One such figure was Americo Vespucio, a 16th-century Spanish navigator and explorer who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas in 1493.
Another notable individual with the name Americo was Americo Tomas de Souza, a Portuguese explorer and the first governor-general of Brazil, appointed in 1549. He played a crucial role in establishing the first permanent Portuguese settlement in the Americas, the city of Salvador da Bahia.
In the realm of literature, the name Americo is associated with the Uruguayan writer Americo Luca, born in 1911, who was renowned for his poetry and novels exploring the themes of existentialism and the human condition.
The world of politics also features several prominent figures with the name Americo, such as Americo Petrocchi, an Italian politician and lawyer who served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Italian parliament) from 1900 to 1904.
Perhaps one of the most famous individuals with the name Americo was Americo Vespucci, the Italian explorer after whom the Americas were named. Born in 1454 in Florence, Italy, Vespucci's voyages and accounts of the new lands he encountered played a pivotal role in the recognition of the Americas as separate continents, distinct from Asia.
People
Americo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Americo as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Americo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Americo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,113 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Americo going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 307,955 US residents.
Is Americo a common name?
We classify Americo as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,903 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Americo most popular?
The single biggest year for Americo was 1922, when 106 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Americo is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Americo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,294 people with the name Americo, or 0.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,850 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Americo in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Americo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Americo appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,290 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Americo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Americo is Hispanic at 59.7%. The next largest groups are White (37.2%) and Black (1.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Americo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Americo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.7% (1,370 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Americo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Americo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Americo in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Americo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Americo in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Americo can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Americo?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.