Ilsa
A feminine name derived from Elizabeth, meaning "consecrated to God".
Name Census estimates that about 830 living Americans carry the first name Ilsa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ilsa today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ilsa births was 2011 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ilsa. 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 Ilsa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
830
~ 1 in 412,957 Americans
Peak year
2011
34 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,800
Tracked since 1943
Census
Ilsa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,391 people with the first name Ilsa, which placed it at #9,825 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
#9,825
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,391 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
50.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ilsa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilsa is Hispanic at 50.5%. The next largest groups are White (40.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%). 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 Ilsa 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 Ilsa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino50.5% · 702
- White40.8% · 568
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 65
- Two or more races2.4% · 33
- Black or African American1.6% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Ilsa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ilsa from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 205 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ilsa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ilsa 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 Ilsa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ilsas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ilsa
The name Ilsa has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically in the Old Norse and Old German tongues. It is derived from the roots "il" meaning "battle" or "fight" and "sa" meaning "victory" or "triumph." This combination suggests the name's meaning to be something along the lines of "battle victory" or "triumphant warrior."
The name Ilsa can be traced back to the medieval period, where it was a popular name among the Germanic tribes and peoples of Northern Europe. It was often given to children with the hope that they would grow to be strong and victorious individuals.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ilsa can be found in the Old Norse sagas and legends, where it was borne by several valiant female characters. In the Icelandic Saga of Grettir the Strong, there is a character named Ilsa, who was known for her courage and resilience.
Throughout history, the name Ilsa has been carried by several notable figures. In the 11th century, Ilsa of Merseburg was a German noblewoman and abbess who played a significant role in the religious and political affairs of her time. Another prominent bearer of the name was Ilsa von Toggenburg, a 13th-century Swiss noblewoman who was known for her bravery and leadership during the battles against the Habsburgs.
In the realm of literature, the name Ilsa gained notoriety through the character of Ilsa Lund in the novel "Casablanca" by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, which later inspired the iconic 1942 film of the same name starring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart.
Other notable bearers of the name Ilsa include Ilsa Konrads (1913-1983), a Latvian-American artist and sculptor; Ilsa Barzetti (1907-1968), an Italian actress and dancer; and Ilsa Baronin von Aufseß (1888-1970), a German writer and feminist activist.
While the name Ilsa has its roots in the Germanic languages and cultures, it has since spread to various parts of the world and has been adapted and embraced by different communities, each adding their own unique cultural and linguistic nuances to its meaning and significance.
People
Ilsa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ilsa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ilsa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ilsa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 830 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ilsa 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 412,957 US residents.
Is Ilsa a common name?
We classify Ilsa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 895 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ilsa most popular?
The single biggest year for Ilsa was 2011, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ilsa is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ilsa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,391 people with the name Ilsa, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,825 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 Ilsa 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 Ilsa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ilsa appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,398 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Ilsa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilsa is Hispanic at 50.5%. The next largest groups are White (40.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%). 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 Ilsa most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Ilsa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.5% (702 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 Ilsa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ilsa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ilsa 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 Ilsa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ilsa 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 Ilsa 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 Ilsa?
Want to know how many Americans are named Ilsa? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.