Irasema

History & Origin

Irasema comes from Iracema, the indigenous heroine of José de Alencar's Romantic novel of that name. Alencar coined it as an anagram of 'America' dressed in Tupi sounds, and readers often gloss it as 'honey-lips'. The 's' spelling is common in Spanish-speaking countries.

Carried north by Mexican and other Latin American families, it appears in U.S. records as a heritage name that stayed uncommon, with a faint high point in the mid-nineteen-nineties. It reads as a proudly literary, Pan-American choice rather than a passing trend.