Evangeline
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "bearer of good news".
Name Census estimates that about 26,463 living Americans carry the first name Evangeline. It sits at #174 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Evangeline today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Evangeline births was 2024 (1,741 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Evangeline. 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 Evangeline with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
26K
~ 1 in 12,952 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,741 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#174
Tracked since 1881
Census
Evangeline in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 23,508 people with the first name Evangeline, which placed it at #1,443 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
#1,443
National first-name rank
People counted
24K
23,508 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Evangeline
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Evangeline is White at 45.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.0%) and Hispanic (18.6%). 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 Evangeline 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 Evangeline at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.7% · 10,752
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.0% · 4,709
- Hispanic or Latino18.6% · 4,377
- Black or African American8.0% · 1,887
- Two or more races6.1% · 1,444
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 339
Popularity
Evangeline: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Evangeline 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 11,607 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Evangeline remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Evangeline 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 Evangeline during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Evangelines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Evangeline, while Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 559 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Evangeline
The name Evangeline originated from the Greek language and means "bearer of good news". It is derived from the Greek word "evangelion", which means "gospel" or "good news". The name first appeared in the Christian tradition and was used to refer to the four Gospels of the New Testament.
Evangeline is a feminine form of the name Evangelista, which was commonly used in the early Christian Church to refer to evangelists, or those who spread the gospel. The name Evangelista can be traced back to the 4th century, when it was used to refer to the authors of the Gospels, such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The earliest recorded use of the name Evangeline dates back to the 17th century in France. It is believed that the name became popular in France after the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie" in 1847. The poem tells the story of a young Acadian woman named Evangeline who is separated from her lover during the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia.
One of the most famous people named Evangeline in history was Evangeline Booth (1865-1950), the fourth child of William and Catherine Booth, the founders of The Salvation Army. She served as the fourth General of The Salvation Army from 1934 to 1939.
Another notable Evangeline was Evangeline Cory Booth (1865-1950), an English novelist and playwright who wrote under the pen name "Violet Fane". She was a contemporary of Oscar Wilde and a member of the Bloomsbury Group.
In the world of literature, Evangeline Walton (1907-1996) was an American writer best known for her novels "The Island of the Mighty" and "The Sword is Forged", which were inspired by the legends of the Finnish epic, the Kalevala.
Evangeline Adams (1868-1932) was an American astrologer and one of the first women to be accepted as a professional astrologer in the United States. She was known for her popular astrology books and her clientele, which included many famous people of her time.
Evangeline Lilly (born 1979) is a Canadian actress best known for her roles in the TV series "Lost" and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. She played the role of Kate Austen in "Lost" and the character of Hope van Dyne/Wasp in the Marvel films.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Evangeline
People
Evangeline + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Evangeline 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
Evangeline: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Evangeline?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 26,463 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Evangeline 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 12,952 US residents.
Is Evangeline a common name?
We classify Evangeline as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 34,756 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Evangeline most popular?
The single biggest year for Evangeline was 2024, when 1,741 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Evangeline is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Evangeline in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 23,508 people with the name Evangeline, or 7.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,443 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 Evangeline 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 Evangeline?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Evangeline appears almost entirely female. Of the 23,505 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 Evangeline?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Evangeline is White at 45.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.0%) and Hispanic (18.6%). 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 Evangeline most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Evangeline in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.7% (10,752 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 Evangeline in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Evangeline a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Evangeline 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 Evangeline still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Evangeline 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 Evangeline 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 Americans are named Evangeline?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.