Ethel
From Old English meaning "noble" or "prosperous maiden".
Name Census estimates that about 31,037 living Americans carry the first name Ethel. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Ethel today is around 77 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ethel births was 1918 (8,110 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ethel. 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 Ethel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ethel is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,490 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Ethel is about 77 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Ethels were born before 1959.
- • Compared to the 1910s, recent registration numbers for Ethel have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
31K
~ 1 in 11,043 Americans
Peak year
1918
8,110 babies that year
Average age
77
years old
1968 SSA rank
#4,319
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ethel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 41,867 people with the first name Ethel, which placed it at #1,018 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
#1,018
National first-name rank
People counted
42K
41,867 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ethel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ethel is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Black (37.2%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Ethel 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 Ethel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.2% · 22,706
- Black or African American37.2% · 15,570
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 1,337
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 1,077
- Two or more races1.9% · 795
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 382
Gender
Gender distribution for Ethel
Out of the 280,380 babies given the name Ethel since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Ethel as a male name
- Ranked #4,319 in 1968
- 5 male births in 1968
- Peak: 1928 (48 births)
Ethel as a female name
- Ranked #4,915 in 2024
- 27 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (8,075 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ethel appears almost entirely female. Of the 41,868 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Ethel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ethel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 63,949 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ethel 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 Ethel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ethels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Ethel, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,829 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ethel
Ethel is an English given name of Anglo-Saxon origin, derived from the Old English word "æðele", meaning "noble" or "aristocratic". The name can be traced back to the 7th century AD, during the Anglo-Saxon period in England.
The name gained popularity in the Middle Ages, particularly among the nobility and upper classes of English society. Its use was often associated with individuals of high social standing or those with a refined upbringing.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ethel can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record of events in Anglo-Saxon England, which mentions an Ethel who was the daughter of King Ecgberht of Wessex in the 9th century.
In the 12th century, Ethel was the name of a daughter of King Henry I of England, who later became a nun at the convent of Fontevrault in France.
Throughout the medieval period, several notable women bore the name Ethel, including Ethel of Normandy (c. 1030-1083), the daughter of Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, and Ethel of Calais (c. 1109-1163), a wealthy heiress and landowner in England.
During the Victorian era, the name Ethel experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly among the upper and middle classes of British society. One of the most famous women named Ethel from this time was Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959), an acclaimed American actress and a member of the famous Barrymore acting family.
Another notable Ethel was Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), a renowned English composer and a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement. Ethel Merman (1908-1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her powerful voice and her performances in Broadway musicals.
In the 20th century, Ethel Rosenberg (1915-1953) became a controversial figure in American history as one half of the Rosenberg spy couple, who were convicted and executed for passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union during the Cold War era.
While the name Ethel has waned in popularity in recent decades, it remains a significant part of English cultural and historical heritage, reflecting its noble origins and its enduring association with individuals of distinction and accomplishment.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ethel
People
Ethel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ethel 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
Ethel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ethel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 31,037 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ethel 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 11,043 US residents.
Is Ethel a common name?
We classify Ethel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 280,380 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ethel most popular?
The single biggest year for Ethel was 1918, when 8,110 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ethel is about 77 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ethel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 41,867 people with the name Ethel, or 13.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,018 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 Ethel 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 Ethel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ethel appears almost entirely female. Of the 41,868 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Ethel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ethel is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Black (37.2%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Ethel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ethel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.2% (22,706 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 Ethel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ethel a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Ethel 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 Ethel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ethel 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 Ethel 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 Ethel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.