Else
Else was last recorded in 2020, when 5 babies were given it; 514 Americans have been recorded with it between 1884 and 2020 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Else by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Else mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Else is “a female given name”
Borrowed from Danish Else.
/ˈʔɛlzə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Else?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #15,802, in 2020; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1932, the peak
Else peaked in 1932, when 14 girls were given it, #2,276 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 5 | #15,802 | 3.1 |
| 2019 | 5 | #16,250 | 3.0 |
| 2018 | 7 | #12,871 | 4.1 |
| 2017 | 6 | #14,656 | 3.5 |
| 2013 | 12 | #9,189 | 6.8 |
| 2012 | 9 | #11,551 | 5.1 |
| 2011 | 7 | #13,776 | 4.0 |
| 2010 | 6 | #15,531 | 3.4 |
| 2009 | 6 | #15,827 | 3.3 |
| 2008 | 6 | #15,993 | 3.2 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 8 | #13,044 | 4.2 |
| 2006 | 6 | #15,703 | 3.2 |
| 2005 | 10 | #10,358 | 5.4 |
| 2004 | 5 | #16,901 | 2.7 |
| 2002 | 10 | #9,712 | 5.6 |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,058 | 3.3 |
| 2000 | 10 | #9,370 | 5.5 |
| 1999 | 8 | #10,639 | 4.5 |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,247 | 3.4 |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,213 | 3.3 |
| 1974 | 6 | #7,978 | 4.1 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,463 | 3.7 |
| 1962 | 5 | #6,856 | 2.5 |
| 1959 | 6 | #5,752 | 3.0 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,477 | 3.0 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,107 | 2.6 |
| 1946 | 8 | #3,759 | 5.1 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,535 | 4.4 |
| 1937 | 8 | #3,236 | 7.5 |
| 1936 | 9 | #2,932 | 8.7 |
| 1935 | 14 | #2,232 | 13.4 |
| 1934 | 12 | #2,464 | 11.5 |
| 1933 | 10 | #2,738 | 9.9 |
| 1932 | 14 | #2,276 | 13.1 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,596 | 6.6 |
| 1930 | 9 | #3,130 | 8.0 |
| 1929 | 8 | #3,474 | 7.2 |
| 1928 | 13 | #2,534 | 11.3 |
| 1927 | 11 | #2,914 | 9.2 |
| 1926 | 12 | #2,757 | 10.1 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,635 | 4.8 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,545 | 5.0 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,228 | 4.2 |
| 1921 | 10 | #3,229 | 8.1 |
| 1920 | 7 | #4,102 | 5.8 |
| 1919 | 13 | #2,557 | 11.5 |
| 1918 | 6 | #4,440 | 5.2 |
| 1917 | 11 | #2,747 | 10.2 |
| 1916 | 7 | #3,656 | 6.7 |
| 1915 | 8 | #3,213 | 8.1 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,616 | 11.2 |
| 1912 | 7 | #2,454 | 12.5 |
| 1907 | 6 | #1,895 | 18.8 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,720 | 21.8 |
| 1902 | 5 | #1,870 | 18.9 |
| 1900 | 7 | #1,619 | 23.4 |
| 1898 | 6 | #1,566 | 23.2 |
| 1896 | 7 | #1,333 | 29.4 |
| 1895 | 12 | #949 | 51.4 |
| 1894 | 5 | #1,552 | 22.4 |
| 1893 | 10 | #975 | 47.0 |
| 1892 | 11 | #924 | 51.8 |
| 1891 | 7 | #1,132 | 37.7 |
| 1890 | 7 | #1,128 | 36.8 |
| 1887 | 5 | #1,191 | 34.3 |
| 1886 | 5 | #1,155 | 34.6 |
| 1884 | 5 | #1,073 | 38.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Else a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Else has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 67 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Else: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Else, and how old are they?
An estimated 195 Americans named Else and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (38% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 15 and 52. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,127 people named Else (1,101 women and girls, 26 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 220 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.1 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 442,385 babies since 1880, Else is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 9,035 babies recorded by SSA was a Else (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Else
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1880-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Dulcie | 1,647 |
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Else and names like it
- Compare Else and ElsieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1930sElse peaked in 1932.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Else since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Else: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1932The year the most babies were named Else.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Else alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with EMost given first.