Italo
Of Italian origin meaning "from Italy" or "Italian".
Name Census estimates that about 366 living Americans carry the first name Italo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Italo today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Italo births was 1918 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Italo. 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
366
~ 1 in 936,487 Americans
Peak year
1918
31 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,971
Tracked since 1911
Census
Italo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,285 people with the first name Italo, which placed it at #10,407 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
#10,407
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,285 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
58.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Italo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Italo is Hispanic at 58.7%. The next largest groups are White (37.4%) and Black (2.5%). 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 Italo 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 Italo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino58.7% · 754
- White37.4% · 480
- Black or African American2.5% · 32
- Two or more races0.8% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Italo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Italo from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 163 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Italo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Italo 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 Italo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Italos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Italo, while California, Pennsylvania, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Italo
The given name Italo originates from the Latin word "Italus", which itself is derived from the Greek word "Italos". This name is closely associated with the Italian peninsula and is believed to have its roots dating back to ancient times.
The earliest known use of the name can be traced back to the 8th century BC, when it was mentioned in the writings of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. It was used to refer to the inhabitants of the region known as Oenotria, which encompassed parts of modern-day southern Italy.
One of the most notable historical figures bearing the name Italo was Italo Calvino, an Italian writer and philosopher who lived from 1923 to 1985. He is renowned for his innovative and imaginative works, such as the novels "Invisible Cities" and "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler".
Another prominent individual with this name was Italo Gariboldi, an Italian sculptor who lived from 1879 to 1953. He is best known for his monumental works, including the equestrian statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi in Rome.
In the realm of politics, Italo Balbo, an Italian Blackshirt leader and aviator, made significant contributions during the early 20th century. He lived from 1896 to 1940 and is remembered for his role in Mussolini's government and his pioneering long-distance flights.
Italo Svevo, whose real name was Aron Ettore Schmitz, was an Italian novelist and playwright born in 1861 and lived until 1928. He is considered a forerunner of the modernist movement in Italian literature and is best known for his novels "Zeno's Conscience" and "As a Man Grows Older".
Lastly, Italo Montemezzi, an Italian composer and conductor who lived from 1875 to 1952, is remembered for his operas, particularly "L'amore dei tre re" (The Love of Three Kings), which brought him international acclaim.
People
Italo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Italo 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
Italo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Italo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 366 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Italo 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 936,487 US residents.
Is Italo a common name?
We classify Italo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 749 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Italo most popular?
The single biggest year for Italo was 1918, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Italo is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Italo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,285 people with the name Italo, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,407 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 Italo 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 Italo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Italo appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,287 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Italo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Italo is Hispanic at 58.7%. The next largest groups are White (37.4%) and Black (2.5%). 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 Italo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Italo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.7% (754 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 Italo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Italo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Italo 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 Italo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Italo 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 Italo 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 have the name Italo?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Italo, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.