- 561
- people in the U.S. have this name Get contact details for people named Irene Martin
Meaning & Origins
From Greek eirēnē ‘peace’ it was borne in Greek mythology by a minor goddess who personified peace, and by a Byzantine empress (752–803). The name was taken up in the English-speaking world at the end of the 19th century, and became popular in the 20th, partly as a result of being used as the name of a character in John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga (1922). It was formerly pronounced in three syllables, as in Greek, but is now thoroughly naturalized as an English name and usually pronounced as two syllables.
| 240th in the U.S. for 2011 |
English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, German, Czech, Slovak, Spanish (Martín), Italian (Venice), etc.: from a personal name (Latin Martinus, a derivative of Mars, genitive Martis, the Roman god of fertility and war, whose name may derive ultimately from a root mar ‘gleam’). This was borne by a famous 4th-century saint, Martin of Tours, and consequently became extremely popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. As a North American surname, this form has absorbed many cognates from other European forms.
| 15th in the U.S. for 2011 |
Nicknames & variations
Irena, Iren, Ireneo, Irenia, Irenea, Irenio, Irenee, Ireno, Irma, Irenne
Martinez, Morton, Martino, Martens, Martell, Martins, Martel, Martinson, Martindale, Martz
Top state populations
U.S. Distribution Map
