Ethel
Girls' name · Early 20th-century revival perennial
- Living in the US
- ~39,600 survival-weighted estimate
- 2025 rank
- #4,172 among girls
- Births in 2025
- 34 280,412 since 1880
- Typical age
- 78 years, median
Ethel popularity over time
The high point was 1918: 8,110 births recorded as Ethel. It appears in the very first year SSA covers, 1880. Across the record, 60 years put Ethel in the top 100.
The 2025 position is #4,172, on 34 births. Over ten years the count has risen 2.8×. Year on year the rank improved by 721.
How many people are named Ethel?
About 39,600 people named Ethel are alive in the United States today. That is out of 280,412 recorded births since 1880.
This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.
How old is the average Ethel?
Half of living Ethels are older than 78, half younger. Most living bearers were born in the 1940s. By the site’s era rules that makes Ethel a early 20th-century revival perennial name.
Your Ethel
Ethel in England and Wales
ONS recorded 29 births named Ethel in 2025, ranking it #1,229. That is 71% higher than five years earlier.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.
Where the name Ethel comes from
Short form of names of Old English origin beginning with Ethel-, æþele (“noble”). First used in the 19th century. Cognate to the Germanic Adela and Adele.
Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.
Notable people named Ethel
| Name | Known for | Years | Editions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ethel Barrymore | American actress | 1879–1959 | 57 |
|
Ethel Merman | American actress and singer | 1908–1984 | 53 |
|
Ethel Voynich | British writer and musician | 1864–1960 | 46 |
|
Ethel Smyth | English composer and suffragette | 1858–1944 | 36 |
|
Ethel Waters | American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress | 1896–1977 | 35 |
|
Ethel Kennedy | American human-rights campaigner and spouse of US Senator Robert F. Kennedy | 1928–2024 | 35 |
|
Ethel Catherwood | Canadian track and field athlete | 1908–1987 | 30 |
|
Ethel Caterham | English supercentenarian | 1909 | 26 |
Photo credits (8)
- Ethel Barrymore, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Merman — ABC Television Uploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Voynich — National Book League (Great Britain), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Smyth — Adam Cuerden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Waters — William P. Gottlieb, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Kennedy — John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Catherwood — Agence de presse Meurisse, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Caterham — Hymj Vga, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.
Names similar to Ethel
Matched by sound and spelling inside this dataset, then ordered by total recorded births. This is not a claim about shared etymology.
Related pages
- All names from 1918
- Top names of 2025
- Names beginning with E
- Every year, 1880 to 2025
- Names by state
Get this data
Every number on this page is available as JSON:
/api/name/ethel.json.
Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).