Pronunciation /ˈɪmədʒən/ | Gender Female Meaning "maiden" | |
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Imogen /ˈɪmədʒən/, or Imogene, is a female given name. It is thought (but not confirmed) to have originated as a misspelling or variation of the name Innogen, from the Old Irish Ingen meaning "maiden" or "girl". It is chiefly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Scandinavian countries.
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Innogen was known as the name of a legendary British queen. The first recorded use of Imogen is by Shakespeare for a British princess in his play Cymbeline. Shakespeare may well have written Innogen, and it was printed as Imogen by mistake, thereafter becoming an accepted form of the name. On the other hand, it may have been a variation that already existed, and Shakespeare simply provided the oldest written record which survived. Many have considered it a misprint. The form Innogen is rare. Shakespeare used the older form Innogen for a ghost character in early editions of Much Ado About Nothing.
The legendary British queen Innogen was supposedly wife to King Brutus and mother of Locrinus, Albanactus and Camber.
In Australia, Imogen was the 35th most popular girls name from 2011–2013, while in England and Wales it was the 34th most popular baby girl name in 2014. As at July 2014, Imogen had never been in the top 1000 most popular baby names in the United States, with only 131 baby girls named Imogen in the US in 2013. It was ranked 86th in popularity for baby girls in Scotland in 2007.