Ion
Greek origin meaning "going forth, travelling".
Name Census estimates that about 287 living Americans carry the first name Ion. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ion today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ion births was 2023 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ion. 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 Ion with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
287
~ 1 in 1,194,266 Americans
Peak year
2023
15 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,563
Tracked since 1928
Census
Ion in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,707 people with the first name Ion, which placed it at #8,491 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
#8,491
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,707 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ion
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ion is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.4%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Ion 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 Ion at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.5% · 1,494
- Black or African American4.4% · 75
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 62
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 45
- Two or more races1.5% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 5
Popularity
Ion: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ion from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 87 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ion remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ion 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 Ion during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ion
The name Ion has its origins in ancient Greek language and culture, dating back to the classical period of ancient Greece. It is derived from the Greek word "ion," which means "violet flower" or "purple."
In Greek mythology, Ion was the name of a legendary character who was the son of Apollo and Creusa, the daughter of the king of Athens. The story of Ion is told in Euripides' play of the same name, which was written around 414 BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ion can be found in the works of ancient Greek historians and philosophers, such as Herodotus and Plato, who lived in the 5th century BCE. In Plato's dialogue "Ion," the character Ion is a rhapsode, or a professional reciter of poetry.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Ion. One of the most famous was Ion of Chios, a Greek poet and tragedian who lived in the 5th century BCE. He was known for his tragedies, although only fragments of his work have survived.
Another notable Ion was Ion of Ephesus, a Greek sculptor who lived in the 5th century BCE. He was known for his sculptures of Athena and was considered one of the greatest sculptors of his time.
In the 4th century BCE, Ion of Samos was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who made significant contributions to the study of geometry and optics.
During the Byzantine era, Ion Damascenus was a Greek rhetor and philosopher who lived in the 7th century CE. He was known for his works on philosophy and rhetoric, and his writings were influential in the development of Byzantine literature.
In the 19th century, Ion Ghica was a Romanian prince and diplomat who served as the Prime Minister of Romania from 1866 to 1867. He was known for his efforts to modernize and westernize Romania.
People
Ion + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ion 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
Ion: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ion?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 287 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ion 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 1,194,266 US residents.
Is Ion a common name?
We classify Ion as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 300 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ion most popular?
The single biggest year for Ion was 2023, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ion is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ion in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,707 people with the name Ion, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,491 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 Ion 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 Ion?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ion leans strongly male. 1,665 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 49 female bearers (2.9%). 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 Ion?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ion is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.4%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Ion most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ion in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.5% (1,494 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 Ion in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ion a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ion 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 Ion still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ion 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 Ion 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 share the name Ion?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.