Galileo
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in Spanish: 'From Galilee'; used as a substitute name for Jesus
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɡalileo/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Galileo is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- UYUruguay1 in 136K(measured from records)
- GYGuyana1 in 375K
- USUnited States1 in 645K
carrying the name, as counted by each country's national register. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 8 (measured from records)
- 1 in 136K (inferred from the name graph)
516 people, 2020
Highest-authority source
Uruguay
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
'From Galilee'; used as a substitute name for Jesus.
Sources 1
- Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
How Galileo is read(measured from records)
Galileo is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Spanish71%
'From Galilee'; used as a substitute name for Jesus.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
- English16%
The CGS unit of acceleration, equal to 1 centimetre per second per second (1 centimeter per second squared, 1cm/s^2). Symbol: Gal
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Galileo, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Galileo counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 516 | 1 in 645K | 494 | — | 4 |
| ES Spain | 61 | 1 in 820K | 61 | — | 1 |
| UY Uruguay | 25 | 1 in 136K | 25 | — | — |
| SE Sweden | 10 | 1 in 1M | 10 | — | — |
| NL Netherlands | 5 | 1 in 3.5M | 5 | — | — |
| GY Guyana | 2 | 1 in 375K | 2 | — | — |
516 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE Uruguay — Nombres más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Galileo is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Korean, Italian astronomer and physicist (1564–1642).
as a nameKorea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary
In Korean, Scientist and teacher of Benedetto Castelli.
as a nameKorea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary
In Italian, Probabilmente usato in sostituzione del nome di Gesù; attestato nella famiglia Galilei.
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
In Italian, forma ital. de Galilaeus
as a nameDicionário dos sobrenomes italianos
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Galileo Bonaiutib. 1370FRItalian physician (1370-1450)
- Galileo Galileib. 1564ITItalian polymath (1564–1642)
- Galileo Ferrarisb. 1847ITItalian engineer and physicist (1847-1897)
- Galileo Agnolib. 1870Italian teacher and writer
- Galileo Chinib. 1873ITItalian painter (1873-1956)
- Galileo Beghib. 1874ITItalian politician (1874–1944)
- Galileo Emendabilib. 1898ITItalian sculptor (1898-1974)
- Galileo Cattabrigab. 1901ITItalian painter (1901-1969)
- Galileo Chanesb. 1917UYassociation football player
- Galo Ochoab. 1967USnot in their usual nameMexican musician
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 33 sources across 17 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 494 | #20,132 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 61 | #23,573 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 56 | #11,689 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2022 | 44 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2021 | 38 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2024 | 33 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2020 | 30 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2019 | 30 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2015 | 30 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2018 | 28 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2023 | 27 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 25 | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you pronounce Galileo?
- A machine transcription gives /ɡalileo/ (IPA) for Spanish.
- Is Galileo a male or female name?
- Galileo is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Galileo mean, and where does it come from?
- 'From Galilee'; used as a substitute name for Jesus. Recorded by Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios.
- In which country does Galileo have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 516 people named Galileo, more than in any other country we hold.
- Where is Galileo most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Galileo is densest in Uruguay — about 1 in 136 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Galileo?
- In the United States, the national register counted 516 people named Galileo in 2020, about 1 in 645 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Galileo?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/galileoThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Galileo”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.