Igor
A masculine name of Old Norse origin meaning "warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 758 living Americans carry the first name Igor. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Igor today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Igor births was 1998 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Igor. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Igor with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
758
~ 1 in 452,183 Americans
Peak year
1998
30 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,939
Tracked since 1951
Census
Igor in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 14,187 people with the first name Igor, which placed it at #1,962 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
#1,962
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
14,187 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Igor
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Igor is White at 93.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.2%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Igor 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 Igor at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.1% · 13,207
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 596
- Black or African American1.3% · 178
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 107
- Two or more races0.7% · 97
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 2
Popularity
Igor: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Igor from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 234 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Igor 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 Igor during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Igors live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Massachusetts, New York, California recorded the most babies named Igor, while Washington, New Jersey, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Igor
The name Igor has its origins in the Old Norse language and culture, dating back to the Viking era around the 8th to 11th centuries AD. It is derived from the Old Norse words "ingr" meaning "descendant of Ing" and "arr" meaning "warrior" or "army". The name was therefore associated with warriors and soldiers in ancient Norse society.
Igor is believed to have first appeared as a personal name among the Vikings and Norse settlers in Scandinavia and parts of modern-day Russia. Similar spellings include Ingvar, Yngvar, and Iggor. The name later spread to Eastern Europe, particularly in Ukraine and Russia, where it became more widely adopted.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Igor is found in the Primary Chronicle, an early East Slavic chronicle dating back to the 12th century. It mentions a semi-legendary prince named Igor of Kiev, who ruled the Kievan Rus' in the late 10th century.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Igor was Igor I, Grand Prince of Kiev, who reigned from 912 to 945 AD. He is remembered for his military campaigns against the Pechenegs and for consolidating the power of the Kievan Rus' state.
Another notable Igor was Igor Svyatoslavich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky, who lived from around 1036 to 1078. He was a prominent military leader during the reign of his father, Svyatoslav II of Kiev, and played a role in the struggle for power among the Rurik dynasty princes.
In the 19th century, Igor Sikorsky, a Russian-American aviation pioneer, was born in 1889. He is best known for his innovative work in designing and building early helicopters, including the Sikorsky R-4, the first successful helicopter.
Igor Stravinsky, the renowned Russian composer, was born in 1882 and is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. His works, such as "The Rite of Spring" and "The Firebird," revolutionized classical music and had a lasting impact on the development of modern music.
Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet cipher clerk, defected to Canada in 1945, exposing a Soviet spy ring operating in North America. His actions played a significant role in heightening tensions during the early stages of the Cold War and raising awareness of Soviet espionage activities.
People
Igor + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Igor as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Igor: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Igor?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 758 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Igor 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 452,183 US residents.
Is Igor a common name?
We classify Igor as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 791 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Igor most popular?
The single biggest year for Igor was 1998, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Igor is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Igor in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 14,187 people with the name Igor, or 4.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,962 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 Igor 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 Igor?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Igor appears almost entirely male. Of the 14,180 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Igor?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Igor is White at 93.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.2%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Igor most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Igor in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.1% (13,207 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 Igor in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Igor a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Igor 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 Igor still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Igor 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 Igor 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 Americans are named Igor?
See how many people share the name Igor on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.