Fun Facts About the Name Icarus
- 168 babies named Icarus: U.S. records list 168 babies given the name Icarus from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Icarus Mean?
Icarus is a Greek name of uncertain meaning. It appears in Greek as Ἴκαρος (Ikaros) and in Latin as Icarus. The usual scholarly view is that the name is pre-Greek - inherited from an older Aegean language that left traces in Greek vocabulary - rather than formed from recognizable Greek roots. The ending -aros matches a pattern found in other Greek words of probable non-Greek origin, such as kyparos. No secure Greek etymology has been established, so the name has no agreed literal translation.
Name lists sometimes attach a meaning drawn from the story of the boy who flew too near the sun, but such glosses come from the myth rather than from the word's history. The association with overreaching and failed ambition is a later symbolic reading, not part of the name's origin.
Icarus Name History & Origins
The name belongs to the son of Daedalus in Greek myth. Daedalus, the craftsman, built the labyrinth for King Minos on Crete; when he and his son were confined, he made wings of feathers fastened with wax so they could escape by air. Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell into the sea, which tradition afterward called the Icarian Sea. The Aegean island of Icaria, near Samos, is tied to the story in Greek tradition.
The myth was told and pictured before it reached Latin literature. Scenes of Daedalus and Icarus appear on Attic vase paintings from the sixth century BC, and Greek writers of the fifth century and later refer to the story. The best-known surviving narrative is in Ovid's Metamorphoses (8.183 - 235), completed in Latin around AD 8, with a shorter version in his Ars Amatoria. Later Greek and Roman writers, among them Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus, also record it. Through Latin the name passed into the modern languages of Europe as Icarus, and it remains closely tied to the myth in modern literary and artistic use.
How Popular is the Name Icarus?
Icarus has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2025. Its best rank was #4,771 in 2025.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #4,771 | 21 | 0.0012% |
| 2024 | #5,289 | 18 | 0.0010% |
| 2023 | #5,130 | 19 | 0.0011% |
| 2022 | #5,285 | 18 | 0.0010% |
| 2021 | #7,802 | 10 | 0.0006% |
| 2020 | #9,020 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 2019 | #8,450 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2018 | #7,305 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 2017 | #13,007 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 2016 | #5,206 | 18 | 0.0009% |
| 2015 | #7,696 | 10 | 0.0005% |
| 2014 | #12,786 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 2013 | #12,853 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 2012 | #11,317 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2011 | #13,033 | 5 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Icarus Shapes Your Personality and Life?
Your tendency is to finish whatever you start. You like to use the pen or the needle (writing, fashion design etc). You are loving, compassionate, intuitive and humanitarian. Runs of luck, either good or bad, follow you. You are sympathetic, but at times might be touchy and oversensitive. You may have a gift for writing. You are intuitive and might be interested in the arts, drama or science.
Position and social status is very important for you and you are always looking for way to improve your position in society. You have power and ability to chose your own destiny and achieve anything you want in life. You can expand in any direction according to your will and the set of values. You have passion for justice and belong to the position of authority. You have an inherent courage and endurance to accomplish "The Impossible Dream". With the power comes responsibility. You hold keys to the material world, but with this gift comes high spiritual responsibility to be fair and true to others. You are philosophical and mature, determined and intense with a desire to endure, often religious.
✦ Icarus's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Icarus's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.