Eleanor
A feminine given name of French origin meaning "bright, shining one".
Roughly 126,643 people in the United States go by the first name Eleanor, which ranks #14 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Eleanor today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eleanor births was 1920 (8,507 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Cathy (126,557).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eleanor. 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 Eleanor with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Eleanor is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 640 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
127K
~ 1 in 2,706 Americans
Peak year
1920
8,507 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14
Tracked since 1880
Census
Eleanor in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 120,073 people with the first name Eleanor, which placed it at #467 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
#467
National first-name rank
People counted
120K
120,073 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
39.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eleanor
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleanor is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Black (5.4%). 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 Eleanor 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 Eleanor at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.3% · 97,667
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 6,494
- Black or African American5.4% · 6,472
- Two or more races3.7% · 4,414
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 4,369
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 657
Gender
Gender distribution for Eleanor
Out of the 329,630 babies given the name Eleanor 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.
Eleanor as a male name
- Ranked #7,884 in 2024
- 10 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1927 (31 births)
Eleanor as a female name
- Ranked #14 in 2024
- 7,127 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (8,497 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eleanor appears almost entirely female. Of the 120,071 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Eleanor: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eleanor 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 74,964 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Eleanor remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eleanor 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 Eleanor during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eleanors live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Eleanor, while Wyoming, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,068 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eleanor
The name Eleanor has its roots in the Provençal language, which was spoken in southern France during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Germanic elements "alli" meaning "other" and "nard" meaning "hardy" or "vigor." The name was introduced to England by Eleanor of Aquitaine, the powerful and influential Queen consort of King Henry II.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, born around 1122, was one of the most prominent figures of the 12th century. Her patronage of literature and the arts helped popularize the name throughout Europe. Other notable historical figures named Eleanor include Eleanor of Castile, the wife of King Edward I of England, who lived from 1241 to 1290.
In the 13th century, the name appears in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, further cementing its place in English literature and culture. Eleanor of Aragon, born in 1182, was the Queen consort of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and León, and her namesake helped spread the name across the Iberian Peninsula.
The name gained further prominence in the 16th century with Eleanor of Austria, born in 1498, who was the Queen consort of Portugal and later the Queen consort of France. Eleanor of Toledo, born in 1519, was the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, the first Grand Duke of Tuscany.
In more recent history, Eleanor Roosevelt, born in 1884 and died in 1962, was a prominent political figure and the longest-serving First Lady of the United States. Her advocacy for human rights and social justice helped solidify the name's association with strength and resilience.
Other notable Eleanors include Eleanor Farjeon, a British author and poet born in 1881, and Eleanor Glueck, an American criminologist born in 1898. The name has maintained its popularity throughout the centuries, with many women bearing this name leaving an indelible mark on various fields.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Eleanor
People
Eleanor + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eleanor 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
Eleanor: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eleanor?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 126,643 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eleanor 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 2,706 US residents.
Is Eleanor a common name?
We classify Eleanor as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 329,630 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eleanor most popular?
The single biggest year for Eleanor was 1920, when 8,507 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eleanor is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eleanor in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 120,073 people with the name Eleanor, or 39.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #467 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 Eleanor 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 Eleanor?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eleanor appears almost entirely female. Of the 120,071 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 Eleanor?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleanor is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Black (5.4%). 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 Eleanor most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eleanor in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.3% (97,667 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 Eleanor in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eleanor a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Eleanor 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 Eleanor still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eleanor 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 Eleanor 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 Eleanor?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.