Starlette
A feminine name combining "star" with the French diminutive suffix "-ette".
Name Census estimates that about 631 living Americans carry the first name Starlette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Starlette today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Starlette births was 1982 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Starlette. 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 Starlette with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
631
~ 1 in 543,192 Americans
Peak year
1982
21 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,994
Tracked since 1943
Census
Starlette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 546 people with the first name Starlette, which placed it at #19,393 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
#19,393
National first-name rank
People counted
546
546 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Starlette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Starlette is White at 42.9%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Hispanic (10.1%). 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 Starlette 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 Starlette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.9% · 234
- Black or African American34.6% · 189
- Hispanic or Latino10.1% · 55
- Two or more races7.7% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 12
Popularity
Starlette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Starlette from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 144 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Starlette remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Starlette 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 Starlette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Starlettes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Starlette
The name Starlette is a modern invention, likely created in the English-speaking world in the 20th century. It is a feminine form of the word "star," which has its origins in the Proto-Indo-European root "ster," meaning "star." The name Starlette is a combination of the English word "star" and the French diminutive suffix "-ette," meaning "little."
While the name Starlette does not have a long historical tradition, it reflects the fascination with celestial bodies and the desire to name children after these awe-inspiring celestial objects. The name may have been inspired by the growing interest in space exploration and the fascination with stars and the cosmos in the mid-20th century.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Starlette can be found in the 1959 film "Some Like It Hot," where Marilyn Monroe played the character of Sugar "Starlette" Cane. This exposure in a popular Hollywood film likely contributed to the name's popularity in the following decades.
Another notable Starlette was Starlette Miariaunii, a French actress and model born in 1973. She appeared in several French films and television shows in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In the literary world, Starlette is the name of a character in the novel "The Prince of Tides" by Pat Conroy, published in 1986. This further popularized the name in the English-speaking world.
An early recorded use of the name Starlette can be found in the United States Social Security records, where a Starlette was born in 1939. However, the name did not gain significant popularity until the latter half of the 20th century.
While the name Starlette may not have a long historical tradition, it reflects the modern fascination with celestial bodies and the desire to give children unique and evocative names. Its use in popular culture and literature has contributed to its recognition and appeal.
People
Starlette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Starlette as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Starlette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Starlette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 631 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Starlette 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 543,192 US residents.
Is Starlette a common name?
We classify Starlette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 714 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Starlette most popular?
The single biggest year for Starlette was 1982, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Starlette is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Starlette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 546 people with the name Starlette, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,393 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 Starlette 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 Starlette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Starlette appears almost entirely female. Of the 545 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Starlette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Starlette is White at 42.9%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Hispanic (10.1%). 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 Starlette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Starlette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.9% (234 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 Starlette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Starlette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Starlette 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 Starlette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Starlette 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 Starlette 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 have Starlette as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.