Isolde
A feminine name of uncertain origin and meaning, perhaps related to the Germanic elements is "ice" and hild "battle".
Name Census estimates that about 324 living Americans carry the first name Isolde. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Isolde today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Isolde births was 2007 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Isolde. 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 Isolde with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
324
~ 1 in 1,057,884 Americans
Peak year
2007
26 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,721
Tracked since 1971
Census
Isolde in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 685 people with the first name Isolde, which placed it at #16,462 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
#16,462
National first-name rank
People counted
685
685 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Isolde
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isolde is White at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.1%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Isolde 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 Isolde at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.6% · 552
- Hispanic or Latino10.1% · 69
- Two or more races4.5% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 22
- Black or African American1.0% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4
Popularity
Isolde: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Isolde from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 169 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Isolde remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Isolde 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 Isolde during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Isoldes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Isolde
The name Isolde has its origins in the medieval Germanic languages. It is derived from the Germanic elements "is" meaning "ice" or "iron", and "hild" meaning "battle". Together, these elements combine to form the name with the meaning "ice battle" or "battle of iron".
The name rose to prominence through its use in the tragic medieval romance of Tristan and Isolde, a story of doomed lovers from the 12th century that was widely popularized across Europe. In the tale, Isolde was an Irish princess betrothed to King Mark of Cornwall, but she fell in love with his nephew Tristan.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Isolde of the White Hands, an English noblewoman who lived in the late 12th century. She was the daughter of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby. Another early Isolde was Isolde of Massyghuolme, who lived in Yorkshire, England in the late 13th century.
In the 15th century, Isolde Parewastel was a notable English woman who was executed for alleged witchcraft and heresy in 1438. Centuries later, in 1819, Isolde Kurz was born in Germany and became a respected author, writing novels and short stories during her lifetime.
The composer Richard Wagner brought renewed attention to the name with his famous opera Tristan und Isolde, which premiered in 1865 and was based on the medieval romance. Isolde Aschera was a German operatic soprano born in 1891 who performed the role of Isolde in Wagner's opera.
While the name has remained relatively uncommon over the centuries, it has been borne by a number of notable women throughout history, each contributing to the rich tapestry of cultural and artistic significance associated with this evocative medieval name.
People
Isolde + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Isolde 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
Isolde: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Isolde?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 324 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Isolde 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 1,057,884 US residents.
Is Isolde a common name?
We classify Isolde as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 327 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Isolde most popular?
The single biggest year for Isolde was 2007, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Isolde is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Isolde in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 685 people with the name Isolde, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,462 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 Isolde 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 Isolde?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isolde appears almost entirely female. Of the 688 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Isolde?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isolde is White at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.1%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Isolde most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Isolde in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.6% (552 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 Isolde in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Isolde a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Isolde 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 Isolde still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Isolde 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 Isolde 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 Isolde?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.