Imelda
A Spanish feminine name of Germanic origin meaning "industrial" or "battler".
Name Census estimates that about 5,093 living Americans carry the first name Imelda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Imelda today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Imelda births was 1978 (149 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Imelda. 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 Imelda with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.1K
~ 1 in 67,299 Americans
Peak year
1978
149 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,658
Tracked since 1891
Census
Imelda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,824 people with the first name Imelda, which placed it at #1,563 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
#1,563
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
20,824 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
71.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Imelda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Imelda is Hispanic at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.3%) and White (4.4%). 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 Imelda 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 Imelda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino71.5% · 14,881
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.3% · 4,634
- White4.4% · 923
- Black or African American1.3% · 279
- Two or more races0.4% · 76
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 31
Popularity
Imelda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Imelda from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 1,283 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Imelda 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 Imelda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Imeldas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Imelda, while New Mexico, Nebraska, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 264 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Imelda
The name Imelda has its origins in the Germanic languages. It is derived from the Old German words "ira" meaning "iron" and "milta" meaning "work" or "labor". Together, these root words suggest a meaning along the lines of "iron worker" or "hard worker".
In the early medieval period, the name Imelda was predominantly used in areas of what is now modern-day Germany and the surrounding regions. Over time, it spread to other parts of Europe through migrations and cultural exchange. Variant spellings from this era include Imilda, Ymylda, and Ymelta.
One of the earliest documented uses of the name Imelda can be found in the hagiography of Saint Imelda Lambertini, an Italian nun who lived in the 13th century. According to Catholic tradition, she had a profound spiritual experience involving the Holy Eucharist at a young age, which contributed to her canonization.
In the 14th century, an English noblewoman named Imelda de Ralegh was recorded as a landowner in Somerset. She was born around 1320 and held estates in the region until her death in 1392.
During the Renaissance period, Imelda Lambertini, an Italian painter and engraver, achieved recognition for her artistic works. She was born in Bologna in 1322 and is known for her religious-themed engravings and etchings.
In the 19th century, Imelda Maier was a German-born American pioneer and early settler in Texas. She was born in 1817 in Bavaria and immigrated to the United States in the 1840s, eventually settling in the German communities of central Texas.
Another notable figure was Imelda Marcos, the controversial former First Lady of the Philippines. Born in 1929, she was known for her lavish lifestyle and extensive shoe collection during her husband's presidency in the 1960s and 1970s.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Imelda
People
Imelda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Imelda 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
Imelda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Imelda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,093 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Imelda 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 67,299 US residents.
Is Imelda a common name?
We classify Imelda as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,442 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Imelda most popular?
The single biggest year for Imelda was 1978, when 149 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Imelda is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Imelda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,824 people with the name Imelda, or 6.89 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,563 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 Imelda 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 Imelda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Imelda appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,817 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 Imelda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Imelda is Hispanic at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.3%) and White (4.4%). 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 Imelda most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Imelda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.5% (14,881 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 Imelda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Imelda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Imelda 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 Imelda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Imelda 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 Imelda 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 Imelda?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.