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Inga

#9,711 in 2025Girls' name

The god Ing or Yngvi, through Inga

Inga has been given to 4,127 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #9,711 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1969, with 115 recorded.

Babies named Inga, 2025

1 in 332,000

Inga over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Inga: meaning, origin, and history

The god Ing or Yngvi, through Inga

Old Norse

What Inga means

Inga belongs to the name family reached through Inga → Inga → Inga. Its meaning is “the god Ing or Yngvi”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Danish, Norwegian, Swedish Inga etc., all from Old Norse Inga.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Inga (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Inga is used in English, Danish, Estonian, Faroese, French, German, Icelandic and Latvian and additional language sections. Its origins include Old Norse.

Inga comes through Swedish Inga and Old Norse Inga.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Inge, Ingrida, Ingeborg and Inga.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Inga is pronounced /ˈɪŋɡə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,127 girls were recorded with the name Inga between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 115 in 1969; its best national rank was #368 in 1889.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #8,609 in 2020 to #9,711 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,904 in 2015 to #9,711 in 2025.

How common is Inga?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 332,000
10 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 161,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#9,711
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
229,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Inga sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 229,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Inga. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ingas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Inga was born before 1962 — so the typical Inga is around 63 today.

Median birth year
1962
About 63 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
15.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,440
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 15.4% of all recorded uses (635).

Is Inga rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,069
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,102
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−3,807
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.45×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
8.7%
Peak was 1969 (115)
Years since peak
56
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#368
1889

Spellings of Inga

Inga is not the most common spelling — Linda is, with 37.0% against Inga's 0.11%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Inga is used

Across 1910–2025, Inga was most concentrated in North Dakota — about 1 in 7,692 girls, against 1 in 148,377 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

013 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Dakota1 in 7,692
  2. 2District of Columbia1 in 20,000
  3. 3Minnesota1 in 25,000
  4. 4California1 in 100,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 100,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 100,000
  7. 7New York1 in 100,000
  8. 8South Dakota1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Inga has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Inga around the world

Where Inga ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2000–2022
    #2,889
    in 2022
  • Scotland
    1975–2016
    #798
    in 2016
  • Ireland
    2013–2016
    #750
    in 2016
  • France
    1979–2013
    #4,624
    in 2013
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #206
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1954–1988
    #657
    in 1988

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Notable people named Inga

People whose public names include Inga, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Inga in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Inga. Linked forms have their own page here.

IngeInhaIngela

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Inga by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#9,711
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,102
Best rank ever
#368
1889
Peak year
1969
115 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,127
Count in 2025
10

Names similar to Inga

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

IngeIngerIngridDomingaKingaTopangaIngriTangaIngrisNgaIngeborgIngraTongaNzingaTapangaIngryEngaSongaLatangaAngaIngredLatongaIngarIngram

Names with a curve like Inga

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Inga, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

TressaCammieChristenaAlidaElbaJennetteAlethiaUrsulaMignonLetitiaDemetraTony

Sibling names for Inga

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Inga

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