Azalee
A feminine name derived from the azalea flower, symbolizing fragility and beauty.
Name Census estimates that about 497 living Americans carry the first name Azalee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Azalee today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Azalee births was 1924 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Azalee. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
497
~ 1 in 689,647 Americans
Peak year
1924
50 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,404
Tracked since 1897
Census
Azalee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 547 people with the first name Azalee, which placed it at #19,370 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#19,370
National first-name rank
People counted
547
547 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
43.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Azalee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Azalee is Black at 43.9%. The next largest groups are White (37.1%) and Hispanic (11.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Azalee described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Azalee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American43.9% · 240
- White37.1% · 203
- Hispanic or Latino11.2% · 61
- Two or more races6.0% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 4
Popularity
Azalee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Azalee from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 359 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Azalee by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Azalee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Azalees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Azalee, while Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 117 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Azalee
The name Azalee is believed to have originated from the French word "azalée," which means "azalea" – a type of flowering shrub. This name likely emerged in the late 18th or early 19th century, during a period of fascination with nature and floral names in France.
The azalea plant itself has roots tracing back to ancient Greece, where it was known as "kalmia" or "rhododendron." The name Azalee is thought to be a modern adaptation of these older botanical terms, reflecting the growing interest in natural motifs and themes during the Romantic era.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Azalee can be found in the works of French author and playwright Victor Hugo (1802-1885). In his novel "Les Misérables," published in 1862, he included a minor character named Azalee, possibly as a nod to the growing popularity of floral names.
Another notable Azalee in history was Azalee Barlow (1858-1949), an American educator and suffragist. She played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement and worked tirelessly to secure the right to vote for women in the United States.
In the world of literature, Azalee Baug (1900-1978) was a renowned Indian poet and writer. She wrote extensively in the Sindhi language and is regarded as one of the most influential literary figures of her time in the region.
The name Azalee also found its way into the world of politics with Azalee Frith (1913-2005), a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament for several years in the mid-20th century.
Lastly, Azalee Smarte (1935-2019) was a prominent African-American artist known for her vibrant abstract paintings and collages. Her work explored themes of identity, race, and the African diaspora, and she was celebrated for her unique artistic vision.
People
Azalee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Azalee as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Azalee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Azalee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 497 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Azalee going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 689,647 US residents.
Is Azalee a common name?
We classify Azalee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,512 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Azalee most popular?
The single biggest year for Azalee was 1924, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Azalee is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Azalee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 547 people with the name Azalee, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,370 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Azalee in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Azalee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Azalee appears almost entirely female. Of the 549 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Azalee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Azalee is Black at 43.9%. The next largest groups are White (37.1%) and Hispanic (11.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Azalee most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Azalee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.9% (240 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Azalee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Azalee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Azalee in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Azalee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Azalee in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Azalee can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Azalee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.