Iago
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Meaning
the Galician form of James, and the root of Santiago, from Sant Iago, Saint James; the name the whole pilgrimage is built on
The story
Iago lived several lives before Shakespeare made one of them notorious. It is the Welsh and Galician form of Iacobus, the Latin name that also developed into James, and two early kings of Gwynedd bore it. Then Othello reached the stage around 1603. Shakespeare's Iago became one of drama's great manipulators, speaking to the audience with such poisonous intimacy that the character cast a shadow over the name for English speakers. Galicia and Brazil tell a broader story. There Iago belongs to the same ancient Jacob family without needing to answer for a fictional villain, and Brazil's census places a large, young generation of Iagos in the 1990s and 2000s. That is one compact reminder that a literary association can dominate in one language and recede in another. The name can point toward Welsh kings, Galician usage, Brazilian families, or a theatre villain depending on where it is heard. Iago's real fascination is not darkness. It is how dramatically a name changes when it crosses a cultural border.
How popular is Iago around the world?
In the United States, Iago is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025. At the 2022 census, 79,769 people in Brazil were named Iago, the 384th most common name, with a median age of 17.
Iago is on the official records of the United States, Brazil, Spain, Montevideo, England and Wales, Mexico City, Argentina and France.
United States
on record
In the United States, Iago is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Iago has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Brazil
1 in 2,500
At the 2022 census, 79,769 people in Brazil were named Iago, the 384th most common name, with a median age of 17.
Among people named Iago living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 5,731 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Spain
1 in 4,900
In Spain, 9,074 residents are named Iago, the 285th most common name among men, with a mean age of 19.2 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Montevideo City
1 in 25,000 · 2011
In Montevideo, 1 boy named Iago was born in 2011, spelling variants counted together.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
England and Wales
1 in 37,000
In England and Wales, 16 boys named Iago were born in 2025, ranked 1,613th among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Mexico City City
1 in 39,000
In Mexico City, there were 3 registrations of Iago in 2022.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023, a partial extract through 3 Mar with no cell on record for this name, is excluded. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
Argentina
1 in 74,000
In Argentina, 9 newborns were given the name Iago in 2024.
share of that year’s name registrations
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
France
1 in 130,000
In France, about 5 boys named Iago were born in 2025, ranked 4,325th among boys that year.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in France by year of birth, from INSEE’s fichier des prénoms (1900–2025; Mayotte from 2012); exact spellings count separately (Léo and Leo are different names), any spelling under 3 in a year and sex is withheld at source, every count is rounded to the nearest 5 at source, and nametree keeps the spellings that reached 20 in some year. Shares divide by INSEE’s count of births in France from 1957, and before that by the file’s own total for the year; INSEE says the file is not complete before 1946. Source: Insee, fichier des prénoms (last updated 2026-07-16)
Not on the record in Puerto Rico, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years.
Keep exploring
The Iago deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Iago truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Iago fits with your family’s names and surname.
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