English. A late Latin name from the Roman family name Egnatius - possibly from an Etruscan source. Early Christians changed the initial, for reasons of religious martyrdom, to relate to the Latin ignis, "fire".

Ignatius is generally found in Catholic families. It is used as the Anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic Eighneachàn. As this is also Anglicized as Aeneas, we have classified Ignatius and Aeneas as Lesser Synonyms.