Earl
A masculine name of Old Germanic origin meaning "warrior" or "nobleman".
Name Census estimates that about 99,452 living Americans carry the first name Earl. It is a predominantly male name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Earl today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Earl births was 1921 (6,797 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Earl. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Earl with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Earl is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,247 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Earl is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Earls were born before 1969.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Earl have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
99K
~ 1 in 3,446 Americans
Peak year
1921
6,797 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,152
Tracked since 1880
Census
Earl in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 92,565 people with the first name Earl, which placed it at #576 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
#576
National first-name rank
People counted
93K
92,565 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
30.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Earl
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Earl is White at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Black (24.9%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Earl 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 Earl at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.8% · 62,791
- Black or African American24.9% · 23,030
- Two or more races2.8% · 2,552
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 1,641
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 1,504
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 1,047
Gender
Gender distribution for Earl
Out of the 291,355 babies given the name Earl since 1880, 99.2% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Earl as a male name
- Ranked #2,152 in 2024
- 68 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (6,754 births)
Earl as a female name
- Ranked #12,354 in 1988
- 5 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1930 (73 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Earl appears almost entirely male. Of the 92,567 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Earl: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Earl from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 64,153 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
Earl 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 Earl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Earls live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Earl, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,180 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Earl
The name Earl has its origins in the Old English word "eorl", which meant "nobleman" or "warrior". This word is derived from the Proto-Germanic "arja-liz", meaning "one who leads in battle". The name first appeared in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Earl is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record of events in Anglo-Saxon England. The chronicle mentions an Earl named Ealdorman Byrhtric, who lived in the late 10th century and served as an advisor to King Ethelred the Unready.
In the Middle Ages, the title of Earl was a rank of nobility in the British peerage system, just below the rank of Duke. The title was often bestowed upon individuals who had distinguished themselves in military service or held significant lands and estates.
A notable early bearer of the name Earl was Earl Godwin, who lived from around 992 to 1053. He was an influential Earl of Wessex and one of the most powerful noblemen in England during the reign of King Edward the Confessor.
Another historically significant Earl was Earl William Longchamp, who lived from around 1135 to 1197. He served as Chancellor of England and was a prominent figure during the reign of King Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart.
In literature, one of the most famous Earls is the character of Earl of Northumberland in William Shakespeare's plays "Richard II" and "Henry IV, Part 1". This character was based on the real-life Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy, who lived from 1364 to 1408 and played a significant role in the Wars of the Roses.
During the Renaissance period, the name Earl was also used by notable figures such as Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, who lived from 1566 to 1601. He was a prominent courtier and military leader during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Earl
People
Earl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Earl as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Earl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Earl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 99,452 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Earl 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 3,446 US residents.
Is Earl a common name?
We classify Earl as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 291,355 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Earl most popular?
The single biggest year for Earl was 1921, when 6,797 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Earl is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Earl in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 92,565 people with the name Earl, or 30.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #576 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 Earl 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 Earl?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Earl appears almost entirely male. Of the 92,567 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Earl?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Earl is White at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Black (24.9%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Earl most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Earl in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.8% (62,791 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 Earl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Earl a male name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Earl in the SSA data are male. 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 Earl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Earl 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 Earl 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 Earl as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.