Eileen
A feminine name of unknown origin, possibly derived from the Greek word "aidios" meaning "eternal".
Name Census estimates that about 92,591 living Americans carry the first name Eileen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Eileen today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eileen births was 1947 (4,267 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eileen. 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 Eileen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Eileen is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 406 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
93K
~ 1 in 3,702 Americans
Peak year
1947
4,267 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
1989 SSA rank
#593
Tracked since 1882
Census
Eileen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 119,997 people with the first name Eileen, which placed it at #468 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
#468
National first-name rank
People counted
120K
119,997 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
39.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eileen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eileen is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.0%). 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 Eileen 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 Eileen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.0% · 99,582
- Hispanic or Latino9.1% · 10,944
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 4,825
- Black or African American2.3% · 2,783
- Two or more races1.2% · 1,408
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 455
Gender
Gender distribution for Eileen
Out of the 189,576 babies given the name Eileen since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Eileen as a male name
- Ranked #6,414 in 1989
- 7 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1943 (17 births)
Eileen as a female name
- Ranked #593 in 2024
- 508 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (4,251 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eileen appears almost entirely female. Of the 119,999 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Eileen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eileen from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 36,647 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eileen 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 Eileen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eileens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Eileen, while Nevada, Alaska, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,591 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eileen
The name Eileen is derived from the Irish Gaelic name Eibhlín, which in turn is a diminutive form of the name Aoibheall. The name Aoibheall is composed of two elements: the first part "aoibh" means "pleasant" or "beautiful", while the second part "fhall" or "vall" means "beauty" or "dignity". Together, the full name Aoibheall can be translated to mean "beautiful maiden" or "beautiful princess".
The name Eileen emerged as an anglicized form of the Irish Eibhlín during the Middle Ages when many Irish names were adapted to English spelling and pronunciation. The earliest known written record of the name Eileen dates back to the 13th century in Ireland.
In Irish mythology, one of the most notable figures associated with the name Eileen is the character of Aoibheall, who was a beautiful princess and the daughter of the legendary Irish king Éochaid Iarlaith. She was renowned for her exceptional beauty and was pursued by many suitors.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Eileen was Eileen O'Brien, an Irish noblewoman who lived in the 14th century. She was the wife of Rory O'Conor, the last High King of Ireland.
In the 16th century, Saint Eileen (or Eilien) was a Scottish Catholic martyr who was executed for her faith during the Scottish Reformation in 1594.
Another notable figure with the name Eileen was Eileen O'Connell (1838-1921), an Irish writer and activist who played a significant role in the Irish literary revival movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Eileen Gray (1878-1976) was a renowned Irish architect and furniture designer who is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture and design.
Eileen Agar (1899-1991) was an influential British painter and collage artist who was a prominent figure in the Surrealist movement in the early 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Eileen
People
Eileen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eileen 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
Eileen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eileen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 92,591 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eileen 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 3,702 US residents.
Is Eileen a common name?
We classify Eileen 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, 189,576 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eileen most popular?
The single biggest year for Eileen was 1947, when 4,267 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eileen is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eileen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 119,997 people with the name Eileen, or 39.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #468 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 Eileen 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 Eileen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eileen appears almost entirely female. Of the 119,999 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Eileen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eileen is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.0%). 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 Eileen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eileen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (99,582 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 Eileen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eileen a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Eileen 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 Eileen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eileen 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 Eileen 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 common is the name Eileen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.