Fun Facts About the Name Icon
- 26 babies named Icon: U.S. records list 26 babies given the name Icon from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Icon Mean?
Icon means "image" or "likeness." It goes back to the Greek noun eikōn (εἰκών), which named a picture, portrait, statue, or reflected image, and which Greek writers linked to the verb eikénai, "to be like, to resemble." Latin took the word over as īcōn, and from Latin it reached the modern European languages.
The Greek word was broad - it could mean a painted portrait, a carved figure, a reflection in water, or a resemblance in the mind - but its use in the Greek Bible gave it a specifically religious weight. In Genesis 1:26 - 27 human beings are made "in the image" (eikōn) of God, and the same noun is used of Christ as the image of the invisible God in the New Testament. That biblical sense of likeness to God is the source of the word's later theological meaning, as distinct from its everyday sense of a picture or symbol.
Icon Name History & Origins
Latin īcōn was used by Christian writers for images in general, and in the Greek-speaking church the word eikona came to refer specifically to the painted wooden panels of Christ, Mary, and the saints that were honored in worship. The long dispute over whether such images should be venerated - the iconoclast controversy, which ran in two phases in the eighth and ninth centuries - left the word firmly attached to religious pictures in the Eastern Christian world.
English adopted the term in the sixteenth century, spelled icon; the spelling ikon is also used, particularly for Orthodox images. From its original sense of a picture or figure, the word widened in ordinary English to mean a symbol, and then a person or thing taken as representative of a whole - a "fashion icon," for instance. In the late twentieth century it acquired a further everyday sense in computing, where an icon is a small image on a screen that stands for a file, program, or command.
As a personal name, Icon is uncommon and recent. It is a word name, taken directly from the English noun rather than inherited from an older stock of given names, and it shares the pattern of other modern word names in English. The name carries the noun's range of senses - a sacred image, a symbol, a representative figure - but it has no long independent history as a personal name.
How Popular is the Name Icon?
Icon 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 2019. Its best rank was #7,342 in 2019.
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 | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | #10,251 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2023 | #9,222 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 2019 | #7,342 | 11 | 0.0006% |
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.
Most Popular Boy Names That Start with I
Short Boy Names That Start with I
How the Name Icon 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.
You are seeking freedom, opportunities to enjoy life: to make love, to go places and to do things. You are very adventurous and willing to take risk to achieve your objectives. New ways and new experiences can't satisfy your restless nature. One adventure leads you to another. You are honest and fair, because you know that this is the only way to receive justice and honesty from other people. But your personal growth is vital for you, and it is difficult to be tied down by rules and obligations. Your restless spirit might best controlled by choosing the field of work that meet your demand for action and adventure.
✦ Icon's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Icon's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.