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Inger

Girls' name

The god Ing/Yngvi, through Ingegerd

Inger has been given to 1,372 babies in the U.S. since 1888. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1966, with 118 recorded.

Babies named Inger, 1986

1 in 711,000

Inger 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Inger: meaning, origin, and history

The god Ing/Yngvi, through Ingegerd

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Inger means

Inger belongs to the name family reached through Inger → Ingegerd. Its meaning is “the god Ing/Yngvi”.

Origin, language, and formation

Inger is used in Danish, French, Norwegian and Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ingegerd and Ingrid.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,372 girls were recorded with the name Inger between 1888 and 1986. Its highest annual count was 118 in 1966; its best national rank was #932 in 1966.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Inger?

Inger had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1986, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1986
1 in 711,000
5 of 3,556,724 births
Among girls only
1 in 343,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1986
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
493,068 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Inger 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 1986 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 493,068 children born in 1986 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Inger. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ingers were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Inger was born before 1965 — so the typical Inger is around 60 today.

Median birth year
1965
About 60 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
45.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
70.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,133
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 45.7% of all recorded uses (627).

Is Inger 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1966 (118)
Years since peak
59
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#932
1966

Spellings of Inger

Inger is not the most common spelling — Angel is, with 40.7% against Inger's 0.56%.

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 Inger is used

Across 1910–2025, Inger was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 276,801 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 100,000
  2. 2California1 in 100,000
  3. 3Louisiana1 in 100,000
  4. 4Michigan1 in 100,000
  5. 5New York1 in 100,000
  6. 6Florida1 in —
  7. 7Georgia1 in —
  8. 8Illinois1 in —

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. Inger has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Inger around the world

Where Inger 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.

  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #287
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1957–1983
    #686
    in 1983

Popularity data from Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Inger by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#932
1966
Peak year
1966
118 that year
First recorded
1888
Last recorded
1986
All-time count
1,372
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Inger

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

IngaIngeRogerIngriIngrisIngridIngeborgIngraJingerJaggerIngryGingerTigerTygerBridgerHagerIngredNigerIngarIngramGerLedgerRugerIngrit

Sibling names for Inger

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 Inger

Top names of 1966, Inger's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1966Girls' names starting with IDanish Girl Names