Felesia
A feminine given name derived from the Latin word "felix" meaning "lucky" or "happy".
Name Census estimates that about 74 living Americans carry the first name Felesia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Felesia today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Felesia births was 1972 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Felesia. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Felesia. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
74
~ 1 in 4,631,815 Americans
Peak year
1972
9 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
1975 SSA rank
#6,699
Tracked since 1960
Census
Felesia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 108 people with the first name Felesia, which placed it at #52,273 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
#52,273
National first-name rank
People counted
108
108 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
75.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Felesia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Felesia is Black at 75.0%. The next largest groups are White (11.1%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Felesia 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 Felesia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American75.0% · 81
- White11.1% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 6
- Two or more races5.6% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 3
Popularity
Felesia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Felesia from the 1960s through to the 1970s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 55 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Felesia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Felesia 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 Felesia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Felesia
The name Felesia has its origins in the ancient Greek language, traced back to the 5th century BCE. It is derived from the Greek word "phelis," which means "rock" or "cliff," suggesting a connection to nature's rugged and enduring elements. The name was relatively uncommon in ancient times but gained popularity during the Byzantine era.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Felesia can be found in a 6th-century BCE Greek play by Aeschylus, where a minor character bears this name. While the character's significance is limited, it serves as an early documented use of the name in literature.
In the 4th century CE, a notable figure named Felesia was a Christian martyr from Tarsus, in modern-day Turkey. She was executed for her faith during the Diocletian persecution, and her story was recorded in the martyrologies of the early Christian church.
During the Byzantine Empire, which lasted from the 4th to the 15th century CE, the name Felesia gained some prevalence among Greek-speaking populations. One notable bearer of the name was Felesia of Constantinople, a renowned scholar and poet who lived in the 11th century. Her works, though few have survived, were celebrated for their eloquence and depth.
In the 13th century, a Felesia of Verona was a notable figure in the religious order of the Poor Clares, a Franciscan sisterhood. She was known for her piety and her dedication to charitable works, earning her a reputation for holiness among her contemporaries.
Another historical figure bearing the name Felesia was a 16th-century Italian painter from Cremona, Felesia Fialetti. While not widely renowned, her works were celebrated in her local region and her name appears in records of the artists' guilds of the time.
Overall, while not a widely popular name throughout history, Felesia has a rich and diverse heritage, spanning from ancient Greece to the Renaissance era, with notable bearers in various fields, including literature, religion, and the arts.
People
Felesia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Felesia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Felesia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Felesia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 74 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Felesia 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 4,631,815 US residents.
Is Felesia a common name?
We classify Felesia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 60.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 87 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Felesia most popular?
The single biggest year for Felesia was 1972, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Felesia is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Felesia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 108 people with the name Felesia, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,273 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 Felesia 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 Felesia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Felesia appears almost entirely female. Of the 106 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Felesia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Felesia is Black at 75.0%. The next largest groups are White (11.1%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Felesia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Felesia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.0% (81 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 Felesia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Felesia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Felesia 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 Felesia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Felesia 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 Felesia 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 Felesia?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Felesia on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.