MEANING & HISTORY
What does Irene mean?
Irene comes from Greek Eirene, a name also borne by the personification of peace in Greek tradition. Its immediate lexical meaning is peace.
The Tagalog and Cebuano dictionary accounts document routes through English, with the Cebuano account also noting the French form Irène. Those intermediary languages explain the present spelling without changing the Greek root. Irene, Irène and Irenea are useful related forms to compare, but they should not be silently combined when a record counts exact spellings.
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Tagalog
- /ʔajˈɾin/Standard-Tagalog
- [ʔaɪ̯ˈɾɪn̪]Standard-Tagalog
I · rene2 source divisions
Dictionary reading & contributors ↗Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
TagalogEtymology & source
Borrowed from English Irene, from Ancient Greek Εἰρήνη (Eirḗnē).
a female given name from English
CebuanoEtymology & source
From English Irene, borrowed from French Irène, from Ancient Greek Εἰρήνη (Eirḗnē, “peace”). Also from Irenea.
a female given name
EnglishEtymology & source
Borrowed from French Irène, from Ancient Greek Εἰρήνη (Eirḗnē, “peace”), name of a goddess of peace, of early Christian saints, and of an 8th-century Byzantine empress. Doublet of Eirini.
A female given name from Ancient Greek, in regular use since the 19th century.
SpanishEtymology & source
Borrowed from Ancient Greek Εἰρήνη (Eirḗnē, “peace”).
a female given name from Ancient Greek
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Irene
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Irene Cortes
Filipino judge (1921-1996)
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Irene Marcos-Araneta
Filipino exile
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
5
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
9
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Irene Cortes, Irene Marcos-Araneta
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Irene in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Related forms & spellings
Related forms may have their own language histories. They are not included in this spelling’s PSA count.
Similar names to Irene
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Irenea♀Form of Irene; peace
- Ireneo♂Peaceful; related to peace
- Rene♂Unaccented form of René; reborn
- René♂Born again; French form of Renatus
- Arlene♀Variant of Arline, a 19th-century literary name
- Arsène♂French Arsenios-name form; virile
- Gene♂♀Short form of Eugene, Eugenia or Genevieve
- Adriene♀Brazilian variant of Adriana
What rhymes with Irene?
Matches share a dictionary-supplied rhyme key in the stated language. Check the recorded reading; another language or accent can change the rhyme.
Explore Irene further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q389528 — Irene (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Irene Cortes (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q389528 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Irene Marcos-Araneta (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q389528 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Irene (Tagalog) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Irene (Cebuano) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Irene (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Irene (Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.