Meaning of the nameIracema

Female
Tupi origin
I-ra-ce-ma

Iracema is a female name created by José de Alencar in 1865 for the title character of the novel Iracema, which he explained as 'lips of honey'.

Meaning

“'lips of honey', according to Alencar; Navarro proposes 'exit of the bee'”

Source: Wiktionary: Iracema · Behind the Name: Iracema

People (2022): 67,397
Rank in Brazil: #457
Median age: 64 years
2010 Census: 88,145; people

Iracema in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Iracema, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1950s (18,180 people).

67,071 women 326 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Iracema is most common

States with the highest share of people named Iracema in the population, in the 2022 Census.

Rio Grande do Sul 0.057%
Paraná 0.054%
Santa Catarina 0.046%
Pernambuco 0.040%
Piauí 0.040%

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	14,763	0.033%
Rio Grande do Sul	6,156	0.057%
Paraná	6,133	0.054%
Bahia	5,126	0.036%
Minas Gerais	4,660	0.023%
Rio de Janeiro	4,469	0.028%
Pernambuco	3,598	0.040%
Santa Catarina	3,515	0.046%
Pará	2,245	0.028%
Maranhão	2,033	0.030%
Ceará	2,009	0.023%
Goiás	1,746	0.025%
Piauí	1,295	0.040%
Paraíba	1,271	0.032%
Mato Grosso	1,149	0.031%
Espírito Santo	1,102	0.029%
Mato Grosso do Sul	902	0.033%
Rio Grande do Norte	858	0.026%
Alagoas	825	0.026%
Distrito Federal	770	0.027%
Amazonas	760	0.019%
Rondônia	600	0.038%
Sergipe	529	0.024%
Tocantins	400	0.027%
Amapá	215	0.029%
Acre	142	0.017%
Roraima	126	0.020%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Iracema

According to Wiktionary, Iracema is a pseudo-loan from Old Tupi, created by José de Alencar in 1865 for the title character of the novel Iracema. The author gave the name the meaning 'lips of honey', which Behind the Name explains through eíra, 'honey', and tembé, 'lip'. Wiktionary notes that in Old Tupi the word for lip is apûã or embé, and records the proposal by Navarro, who links the name to Nheengatu irasema, 'exit of the bee'. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 67,397 people named Iracema, almost always women, with a median age of 64. Proportionally, it is most common in Rio Grande do Sul.

Sources

Wiktionary: Iracema · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
Behind the Name: Iracema · behindthename.com · meaning
Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Iracema · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · spelling

Questions about the name Iracema

What does the name Iracema mean?

Iracema means “'lips of honey', according to Alencar; Navarro proposes 'exit of the bee'”, according to Wiktionary and Behind the Name.

How many people are named Iracema in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 67,397 people with the first name Iracema, which ranks it number 457 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1950s.

Is Iracema a boy's or a girl's name?

Iracema is a female name: in the 2022 Census, 67,071 women and 326 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Iracema?

Iracema is a name of Tupi origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Iracema most common?

Proportionally, in Rio Grande do Sul: 0.057% of the state's population is named Iracema (6,156 people), according to the 2022 Census.

More names of Tupi origin

See all

Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Iracema with a source. See the methodology.