Gennaro
given name · Latin script
Meaning: From Latin Janudrius ‘January’ (from Janus, god of beginnings)
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/d͡ʒennaro/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Gennaro is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Italy than in any other country.
- ITItaly≈1 in 1.4K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 166K
- UYUruguay1 in 10K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Italy (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 224 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.4K (inferred from the name graph)
≈45,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Italy, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Latin Janudrius ‘January’ (from Janus, god of beginnings). This was borne by several saints, including a bishop of Benevento beheaded at Pozzuoli in 304, the patron saint of Naples.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gennaro 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT Italy | #255 | ≈45,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | 275 | Gennaro | 180 |
| US United States | — | 2,007 | 1 in 166K | 2K | Gennaro | 224 |
| AR Argentina | — | ≈700 est. | ≈1 in 65K | 408 | — | 1 |
| FR France | — | ≈610 est. | ≈1 in 112K | 485 | Gennaro | 3 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈540 est. | ≈1 in 123K | listed | Gennaro | 67 |
| UY Uruguay | — | 334 | 1 in 10K | 334 | — | — |
| BE Belgium | — | ≈280 est. | ≈1 in 41K | 24 | Gennaro | 22 |
| CH Switzerland | — | ≈250 est. | ≈1 in 34K | 61 | Gennaro | 28 |
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: ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); INE Uruguay — Nombres más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public); Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). 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)
Gennaro is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Italian, from the personal name Gennaro ‘January’. The name is associated with the cult of Januarius, a 3rdcentury bishop of Benevento, who became the patron saint of Naples.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In Italian, Dal latino Ianuarius, nome del mese; diffuso soprattutto a Napoli per il santo martire di Pozzuoli.
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
In Italian, Latino Ianuarius. Martire a Pozzuoli, 309. Popo. Iarissimo a Napoli, è poco diffuso nel resto d'Italia. Cogn. GenBro, Naretto (pieniontesi); Zennari, Zo. naro (veneti); Zanier (friulano); Zenarolla, -]li (trent.).
as a nameNomi e Cognomi: Saggio di ricerche etimologiche e storiche
In Italian, dal lat. Ianuarius, ‘di gennaio’
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
In Italian, forma italiana de Januarius
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)
- Januariusb. 272ITnot in their usual nameBishop of Naples
- Vittorio Emanuele IIIb. 1869ITnot in their usual nameKing of Italy from 1900 to 1946
- Gennaro Righellib. 1886ITItalian film director and screenwriter (1886-1949)
- Gennaro Verolinob. 1906ITItalian archbishop (1906–2005)
- Jerry Valeb. 1930USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer (1930–2014)
- Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naplesb. 1937ITnot in their usual namedisputed Head of the House of Savoy from 1983 to 2024
- Gennaro Nunzianteb. 1963ITItalian actor
- Gennaro Gattusob. 1978ITItalian association football player and manager
- Gennaro Delvecchiob. 1978ITItalian footballer
- Gennaro Braciglianob. 1980FRFrench footballer
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 61 sources across 26 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.3K | #20,533 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.3K | #20,382 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.3K | #19,537 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 408 | — |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 61 | #16,013 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 44 | — |
| BE Belgium | Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register) | 2008 | 24 | #42,254 |
| IT Italy | Dizionario dei Cognomi Italiani (De Felice, 1978) | — | — | — |
| IT Italy | 意大利语姓名译名手册 (Xinhua Italian Name Manual) | — | — | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
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
- Where does the name Gennaro come from?
- From Latin Janudrius ‘January’ (from Janus, god of beginnings). This was borne by several saints, including a bishop of Benevento beheaded at Pozzuoli in 304, the patron saint of Naples. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- What are other forms of the name Gennaro?
- In the etymology graph, Jenaro, Januarius and Ianuarius are forms of the same name in other languages; Rino is a recorded short or pet form.
- Is Gennaro a male or female name?
- Gennaro 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.
- How do you pronounce Gennaro?
- A machine transcription gives /d͡ʒennaro/ (IPA) for Italian.
- What does the name Gennaro mean?
- Recorded meaning: From Latin Janudrius ‘January’ (from Janus, god of beginnings).
- In which country does Gennaro have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 45 thousand people named Gennaro in Italy, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gennaro.
- How common is the name Gennaro?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,007 people named Gennaro in 2020, about 1 in 166 thousand residents.
- How common is Gennaro compared with other names?
- In Italy, Gennaro is the 255th most common given name of 102,667 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gennaro?
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/gennaroThe 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, “Gennaro” — the 255th most common given name in Italy. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.