Ilse
A feminine name of German origin meaning "pledged to God".
Name Census estimates that about 2,074 living Americans carry the first name Ilse. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ilse today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ilse births was 1993 (103 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ilse. 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 Ilse with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 165,262 Americans
Peak year
1993
103 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,929
Tracked since 1914
Census
Ilse in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,980 people with the first name Ilse, which placed it at #3,924 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
#3,924
National first-name rank
People counted
5.0K
4,980 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
53.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ilse
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilse is Hispanic at 53.9%. The next largest groups are White (43.5%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Ilse 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 Ilse at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino53.9% · 2,684
- White43.5% · 2,166
- Two or more races1.3% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 32
- Black or African American0.6% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 5
Popularity
Ilse: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ilse from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 720 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ilse 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 Ilse during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ilses live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, California, Arizona recorded the most babies named Ilse, while Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 170 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ilse
The name Ilse is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old German name Illa, which was a diminutive form of names beginning with the element "il" meaning "battle" or "struggle." The name first appeared during the Middle Ages in regions where German dialects were spoken.
Ilse was a relatively common name in medieval Germany, particularly in areas like Bavaria and Saxony. It was sometimes spelled as Ilsa, Ilza, or Ylsa during this time period. The name may have been influenced by the Old Norse name Hildr, meaning "battle," which had a similar sound and meaning.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Ilse of Reinstein, a 13th-century German noblewoman who was a prominent figure in the court of the Landgrave of Thuringia. Another notable Ilse from the Middle Ages was Ilse Burg, a 14th-century German poet and writer who composed religious works.
In the 16th century, Ilse von Büren was a German Protestant reformer and advocate for women's education. She is remembered for her efforts to establish schools for girls in several German cities.
During the 19th century, Ilse Frapan (1849-1908) was a German novelist and playwright known for her works exploring social issues and women's roles in society. She was considered a pioneer of naturalism in German literature.
Another significant figure was Ilse Bing (1899-1998), a German-American photographer and photojournalist who is renowned for her pioneering work in modern photography and her contributions to the development of photojournalism.
Ilse Koch (1906-1967) was a notorious German Nazi concentration camp guard who earned the nickname "The Witch of Buchenwald" for her cruelty and sadistic behavior towards prisoners during World War II.
Despite its Germanic roots, the name Ilse has been used in various cultures and regions over time, contributing to its rich historical significance.
People
Ilse + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ilse 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
Ilse: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ilse?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,074 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ilse 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 165,262 US residents.
Is Ilse a common name?
We classify Ilse as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,364 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ilse most popular?
The single biggest year for Ilse was 1993, when 103 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ilse is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ilse in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,980 people with the name Ilse, or 1.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,924 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 Ilse 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 Ilse?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ilse appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,972 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Ilse?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilse is Hispanic at 53.9%. The next largest groups are White (43.5%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Ilse most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Ilse in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.9% (2,684 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 Ilse in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ilse a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ilse 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 Ilse still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ilse 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 Ilse 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 are named Ilse?
Find out how many people have the name Ilse on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.