Ethel
Ethel was most popular in 1918, when 8,075 girls got the name. In 2025 it ranked number 4,211 for girls.
Babies named Ethel each year in the US
Girls Boys
Before 1880: about 1 in 165 girls born 1871 to 1880 were named Ethel, from a sample of the 1850, 1880 and 1920 censuses.
See the numbers by decade
| Decade | Girls | Boys |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 14,866 | 73 |
| 1890s | 31,453 | 140 |
| 1900s | 34,868 | 181 |
| 1910s | 63,662 | 287 |
| 1920s | 62,806 | 338 |
| 1930s | 31,582 | 279 |
| 1940s | 20,582 | 106 |
| 1950s | 11,544 | 56 |
| 1960s | 4,691 | 30 |
| 1970s | 1,499 | 0 |
| 1980s | 547 | 0 |
| 1990s | 272 | 0 |
| 2000s | 187 | 0 |
| 2010s | 198 | 0 |
| 2020s | 165 | 0 |
Ethel in other countries
Out of every 10,000 girls born each year, how many were named Ethel.
US England and Wales France
The dashed part is the US before 1880, from a census sample. It tidies spellings and leaves out rare names, so it runs higher than the counts that follow.
| Country | Top year | At peak | 2025 rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | 1918 | 1 in 143 | #4,211 |
| England and Wales | 1891 | 1 in 31 | #1,243 |
| France | 2011 | 1 in 6,259 | #1,009 |
Writing a character named Ethel?
A girl named Ethel was most likely born around 1918.
Where the counts come from: the US from Social Security card records from 1880 (names given to at least 5 babies in a year; years before about 1937 count fewer people, because the cards started then), and before 1880 from Douglas Galbi's tables of a census sample. England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics from 1996, and before that from Stephen Bush's study of local birth records, a sample of about 120,000 births a year (CC BY 4.0). Scotland from National Records of Scotland. Northern Ireland from NISRA. France from INSEE, first names and last names. Italy from ISTAT (CC BY 4.0), the top 50 names a year. Berlin from the city's open data (CC BY 3.0 DE), counting only the first of a child's names. UK figures are Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. US last names from the 2020 census, and before 1850 from the 1790 census. Irish last names from Robert Matheson's report on the births of 1890. Italian last names from the City of Florence (CC BY 4.0). Norwegian last names from Statistics Norway (CC BY 4.0).