Ethelda — girls' name
396 babies named Ethelda in U.S. Social Security records since 1910, with the highest year being 1920. Year-by-year trend, decade aggregates, and state-level rankings drawn from federal birth data.
50% of everyone ever named Ethelda was born in this single decade.
37 babies were named Ethelda in 1920 — its busiest year on record.
What the Data Says About Ethelda
The Social Security Administration has registered 396 babies named Ethelda between 1910 and 1962, spanning 53 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Ethelda currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 1962. The name reached its historical peak in 1920, when 37 babies received it in a single year.
Decade-level aggregation shows that Ethelda performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 198 births during that ten-year window. Across the 6 decades of recorded activity, Ethelda shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Texas, which accounts for 10 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by . In total, SSA state-level files list Ethelda in 1 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.
No etymological entry is currently available for Ethelda in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 396 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.
Ethelda at a glance
Last recorded 1962Peak year
Current rank
Active since
Ethelda popularity over time
Annual U.S. births registered with the Social Security Administration · 1962–1910
- Peak year (1920)
- 37
- Annual births at peak — across 53 years of records
No longer in the modern top-1000 — last recorded 1962.
396 total births across 53 years of SSA records. Peaked in 1920 with 37 births in a single year.
Ethelda by decade
Total births in each ten-year window — peak vs trough at a glance
- Peak decade
- 1920s
- 198 births that decade — 50% of Ethelda's all-time total
Ethelda decade highlights
- Peak decade 198 births
- Runner-up 81 births
- Modern era share 2010s + 2020s
- Decades tracked with recorded births
1920s was Ethelda's strongest decade
198 babies received the name during that ten-year window — about 50% of all-time use.
Ethelda by state
Where Ethelda concentrates geographically — total births since 1910
| Rank | State | Visual share | Births | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Texas | | 10 | 2.5% |
10 of 396 births nationwide.
Top 5 states
- Texas 2.5% of nationwide
Recorded in 1 of 51 SSA jurisdictions
Texas accounts for 2.5% of all recorded births nationwide — a relatively diffuse profile for this name.
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Nearby Names Like Ethelda
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Data Sources
Data as of 2024. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA).
Primary: Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications — National Data, 1910–1962 (ssa.gov/oact/babynames). National-level data includes all names with 5 or more occurrences in a given year.
State-level: Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names — State-Level Files (namesbystate.zip). Includes all names with 5 or more occurrences per state per year; rarer names are excluded for privacy.