Irene

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Irine in KE Kenya, GE Georgia, אירן in HU Hungary, IL Israel, Ireen in FI Finland and Ειρηνη in CY Cyprus.

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 10 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◐

Irene is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Swahili given name173K records spelled Irene4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Kenya, United States, Philippines, Tanzania

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho

  Also written Irené, Iréne

• Finnish given name167K records spelled Irene4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, Hungary, Philippines

  Languages: Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian

  Also written Irène

• a separate given name129K records spelled Irene6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain

  Also written Irène, Iréne, Irené, Iréné, Irēne

• Indonesian given name43K records spelled Irene9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

  Also written 'Irene, Irène, Irene', Iréne, Iréné

• a separate given name4.6K records spelled Irene7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, United States, Peru, Sweden

  Also written Iréne, Irène, Íréñé, Irené, Îrēnë

• French (Côte d’Ivoire) given name4.4K records spelled Irene4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Côte d’Ivoire

  Also written Irène, Iréné, Irené

• Turkish given name1.7K records spelled Irene3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, United States, Italy, Spain

  Languages: Turkish, Uzbek

  Also written Irène

• English (South Africa) given name1.4K records spelled Irene3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in South Africa, Tanzania, United Kingdom, United States

  Also written Irené, Iréne

81 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●

Irene 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.

• from the female personal name Irene, from Greek Eirene ‘peace’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, one of the Horae/Horæ; equivalent to the Roman goddess Pax.

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

• In Portuguese, a female given name from Ancient Greek, equivalent to English Irene

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

• In Spanish, a female given name from Ancient Greek

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

• In Italian, do gr. Eiréne, ‘paz’; matronímico que recorda a fundadora do clã.

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

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●

• Louise Mountbattenb. 1889SEnot in their usual nameQueen consort of Sweden (1950-1965)
• Irene Dunneb. 1898USAmerican actress and singer (1898–1990)
• Princess Irene, Duchess of Aostab. 1904GRGreek princess, Queen consort of Croatia, Duchess of Aosta (1904–1974)
• Princess Irene of the Netherlandsb. 1939NLDutch princess; second child of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard (born 1939)
• Princess Irene of Greece and Denmarkb. 1942ESPrincess of Greece and Denmark (1942–2026)
• Irene Mecchib. 1949USAmerican writer for television, movies, newspapers, and Broadway (born 1949)
• Loreena McKennittb. 1957CAnot in their usual nameCanadian musician and composer
• Irene Carab. 1959USAmerican singer and actress (1959–2022)
• Elizabeth Banksb. 1974USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and director
• Emily VanCampb. 1986CAnot in their usual nameCanadian actress

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 · 1,583 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Irene?

We estimate roughly 602 thousand people bear Irene (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.

In which country does Irene have the most bearers?

Irene is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled irene.

Where is Irene most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Irene is densest in Hungary — about 1 in 203 people — even though Argentina holds more of our records for it.

How common is Irene compared with other names?

In Argentina, Irene is the 264th most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.

Is Irene a male or female name?

Irene 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 Irene mean?

Recorded meaning: Greek name meaning 'peace'; used by Byzantines and later imported into England and Ireland.