Inga

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Inga is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name107K records spelled Inga10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia

  Languages: English, German, Western Frisian

  Also written Ïnga, Ingä, In-Ga, Ingã, Ingá

• Russian given name55K records spelled Inga35 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Kazakhstan

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish

  Also written Инга, Інга, 'Inga, Iнга, Ingeburg

• Danish given name48K records spelled Inga8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden

  Languages: Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål

  Also written Ingá

• Finnish given name22K records spelled Inga5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, United States, Latvia

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Inkoo, Ingä, Ingá

• Romanian given name6.8K records spelled Inga3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Moldova, Italy, Peru, United States

  Also written Ĩňğă, Ingá

• a separate given name5.2K records spelled Inga2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Russia, Sweden, India

  Also written Ingá

72 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Inga is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• and use as a girl’s name is in part the Respelled version of the German and result of a regular trend (see for example Scandinavian name Inge, ashort form of Lesley), but it may also have been pIngrid or any of various other names (for influenced by adoption in the Englishexample Ingeborg) based on the name of speaking world of the Spanish name the old Germanic fertility god Ing. pInés.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, Any of the genus Inga of small tropical trees and shrubs.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Danish, a female given name from Old Norse

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Spanish, unexplained.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In Spanish, Swedish hypocoristic of names beginning with Ing(wi), a Germanic divine element/name.

  as a name·Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Inga Arvadb. 1913USDanish newspaper reporter and gossip columnist (1913–1973)
• Inga Landgréb. 1927SESwedish actress (1927–2023)
• Inga Swensonb. 1932USAmerican actress (1932–2023)
• Marie Forsåb. 1956SEnot in their usual nameSwedish actress
• Ingar Helge Gimleb. 1956NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian actor
• Inga Buschb. 1968DEGerman actress
• Foxy Brownb. 1978USnot in their usual nameAmerican rapper from New York
• Inga Cadranelb. 1978CACanadian actress
• Inga Ruginienėb. 1981LTLithuanian politician (LSDP) and Prime Minister
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaasb. 1989NONorwegian actor

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 739 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Inga?

We estimate roughly 100 thousand people bear Inga (counting its spellings and scripts) across 15 countries in our records.

In which country does Inga have the most bearers?

Inga is most frequently recorded in Peru, where it is most often spelled inga.

Where is Inga most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Inga is densest in Latvia — about 1 in 155 people — even though Peru holds more of our records for it.

How common is Inga compared with other names?

In Peru, Inga is the 785th most common given name of 221,790 given names recorded there.

Is Inga a male or female name?

Inga is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Inga mean?

Recorded meaning: perhaps from Sicilian inga ‘ink’, a metonymic occupational name for a scribe.