Eleonora
A feminine given name of Greek origin meaning "bright, shining light".
Name Census estimates that about 955 living Americans carry the first name Eleonora. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Eleonora today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eleonora births was 2024 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eleonora. 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 Eleonora with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
955
~ 1 in 358,905 Americans
Peak year
2024
69 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,558
Tracked since 1882
Census
Eleonora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,009 people with the first name Eleonora, which placed it at #5,622 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
#5,622
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
3,009 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eleonora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleonora is White at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Eleonora 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 Eleonora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.2% · 2,354
- Hispanic or Latino16.2% · 486
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 86
- Two or more races2.0% · 60
- Black or African American0.7% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 1
Popularity
Eleonora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eleonora from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 296 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eleonora 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 Eleonora during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eleonoras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Eleonora, while Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eleonora
Eleonora is a feminine given name with Greek origins, derived from the Greek words "helios" meaning "sun" and "noor" meaning "light". It is a variant spelling of the name Eleanor, which has been in use since the Middle Ages.
The name Eleonora can be traced back to the 12th century, when it was popular among the nobility in various parts of Europe. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name was Eleonora of Aquitaine, who was born in 1122 and became the Queen of France through her marriage to King Louis VII.
Eleonora was also a common name among the royalty of Italy and Spain. Eleonora of Aragon, born in 1450, was the daughter of the King of Naples and became the Queen of Portugal through her marriage to King John II. Eleonora of Toledo, born in 1553, was the daughter of the Viceroy of Naples and became the Duchess of Florence through her marriage to Cosimo I de' Medici.
In the literary world, the name Eleonora is most famously associated with Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Eleonora", published in 1841. The story is a poetic exploration of love, loss, and the afterlife, with the titular character serving as the protagonist's idealized love interest.
Other notable women named Eleonora throughout history include Eleonora Duse, an Italian actress born in 1858, who was considered one of the greatest tragedians of her time. Eleonora Randolph, born in 1792, was an American socialite and the daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., a prominent Virginian politician.
In the realm of music, Eleonora Abbagnato, born in 1976, is an Italian ballerina and the Étoile Principal Dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet. Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, born in 1752, was a Neapolitan poet and philosopher who played a significant role in the Italian Enlightenment.
People
Eleonora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eleonora 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
Eleonora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eleonora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 955 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eleonora 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 358,905 US residents.
Is Eleonora a common name?
We classify Eleonora as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,556 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eleonora most popular?
The single biggest year for Eleonora was 2024, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eleonora is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eleonora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,009 people with the name Eleonora, or 1.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,622 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 Eleonora 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 Eleonora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eleonora appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,012 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Eleonora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleonora is White at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Eleonora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eleonora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.2% (2,354 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 Eleonora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eleonora a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Eleonora 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 Eleonora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eleonora 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 Eleonora 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 share the name Eleonora?
Want to know how many Americans are named Eleonora? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.