Etta
A feminine name of Germanic origin meaning "estate ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 10,159 living Americans carry the first name Etta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Etta today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Etta births was 1920 (803 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Etta. 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 Etta with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
10K
~ 1 in 33,739 Americans
Peak year
1920
803 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
1935 SSA rank
#973
Tracked since 1880
Census
Etta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,491 people with the first name Etta, which placed it at #2,386 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
#2,386
National first-name rank
People counted
10K
10,491 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Etta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Etta is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Black (27.0%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Etta 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 Etta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.6% · 6,776
- Black or African American27.0% · 2,828
- Two or more races3.5% · 369
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 233
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 201
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 84
Gender
Gender distribution for Etta
Out of the 43,008 babies given the name Etta since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Etta as a male name
- Ranked #3,381 in 1935
- 6 male births in 1935
- Peak: 1915 (7 births)
Etta as a female name
- Ranked #973 in 2024
- 266 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (803 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Etta appears almost entirely female. Of the 10,485 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Etta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Etta 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 6,971 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
Etta 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 Etta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ettas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. North Carolina, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Etta, while Montana, District of Columbia, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 572 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Etta
The name Etta has its origins in the Germanic language, derived from the Old English word "ead," which means "prosperous" or "rich." It was a popular name among the Anglo-Saxons and was often used as a shortened form of longer names like Edelina or Edith.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Etta dates back to the 8th century, when an Anglo-Saxon nun named Etta lived in the Benedictine abbey of Minster-in-Thanet in Kent, England. She was renowned for her piety and was later venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Etta was a relatively common name during the Middle Ages, particularly in England and Germany. One notable figure from this period was Etta of Guelders, a 13th-century Dutch noblewoman who served as the Regent of the County of Guelders from 1271 to 1277.
In the 19th century, the name Etta gained popularity in the United States, where it was often used as a shortened form of the name Henrietta. One famous bearer of the name was Etta Place, an American woman who was a companion and possible romantic interest of the outlaw Harry Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid. She lived from around 1878 to the mid-20th century.
Another well-known Etta was Etta James, the iconic American singer who was a pioneer of the blues and rhythm and blues genres. Born in 1938, she was best known for her powerful vocals and hit songs like "At Last" and "Tell Mama." She passed away in 2012.
In the world of literature, Etta Semple was the protagonist of the novel "Miss Buncle's Book" by D.E. Stevenson, published in 1934. The character was a quiet, unassuming woman who wrote a satirical novel based on the residents of her village, causing quite a stir when it was published.
People
Etta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Etta 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
Etta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Etta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,159 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Etta 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 33,739 US residents.
Is Etta a common name?
We classify Etta as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 43,008 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Etta most popular?
The single biggest year for Etta was 1920, when 803 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Etta is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Etta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,491 people with the name Etta, or 3.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,386 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 Etta 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 Etta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Etta appears almost entirely female. Of the 10,485 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 Etta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Etta is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Black (27.0%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Etta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Etta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.6% (6,776 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 Etta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Etta a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Etta 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 Etta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Etta 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 Etta 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 Etta?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.