Ethyl
Ethyl was last recorded in 1971, when 5 babies were given it; 2,395 Americans have been recorded with it between 1880 and 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ethyl by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ethyl mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ethyl is “Alternative form of Ethel: a female given name from Old English”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ethyl?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #8,714, in 1971; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
92 babies in 1915, the peak
Ethyl peaked in 1915, when 92 girls were given it, #689 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 5 | #8,714 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #6,872 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 6 | #6,045 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 11 | #3,890 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,375 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #5,053 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,237 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,389 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 10 | #3,796 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 9 | #4,033 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | 10 | #3,625 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 14 | #2,812 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 20 | #2,232 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 10 | #3,428 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 15 | #2,674 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 15 | #2,516 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 11 | #2,790 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 14 | #2,436 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 14 | #2,471 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 20 | #1,926 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 15 | #2,211 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 17 | #1,982 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 19 | #1,819 | 0.02 |
| 1938 | 24 | #1,563 | 0.02 |
| 1937 | 15 | #2,117 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 24 | #1,520 | 0.02 |
| 1935 | 15 | #2,133 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 17 | #1,944 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 16 | #1,989 | 0.02 |
| 1932 | 17 | #1,978 | 0.02 |
| 1931 | 30 | #1,344 | 0.03 |
| 1930 | 32 | #1,357 | 0.03 |
| 1929 | 35 | #1,262 | 0.03 |
| 1928 | 28 | #1,514 | 0.02 |
| 1927 | 38 | #1,285 | 0.03 |
| 1926 | 54 | #1,014 | 0.05 |
| 1925 | 47 | #1,124 | 0.04 |
| 1924 | 52 | #1,089 | 0.04 |
| 1923 | 51 | #1,067 | 0.04 |
| 1922 | 51 | #1,066 | 0.04 |
| 1921 | 68 | #897 | 0.06 |
| 1920 | 50 | #1,055 | 0.04 |
| 1919 | 82 | #782 | 0.07 |
| 1918 | 79 | #803 | 0.07 |
| 1917 | 69 | #827 | 0.06 |
| 1916 | 81 | #763 | 0.08 |
| 1915 | 92 | #689 | 0.09 |
| 1914 | 82 | #639 | 0.11 |
| 1913 | 53 | #714 | 0.08 |
| 1912 | 40 | #788 | 0.07 |
| 1911 | 42 | #668 | 0.10 |
| 1910 | 34 | #730 | 0.09 |
| 1909 | 40 | #617 | 0.12 |
| 1908 | 33 | #669 | 0.10 |
| 1907 | 28 | #714 | 0.09 |
| 1906 | 31 | #654 | 0.10 |
| 1905 | 29 | #658 | 0.10 |
| 1904 | 34 | #581 | 0.12 |
| 1903 | 29 | #611 | 0.11 |
| 1902 | 39 | #511 | 0.15 |
| 1901 | 27 | #605 | 0.11 |
| 1900 | 29 | #662 | 0.10 |
| 1899 | 31 | #540 | 0.13 |
| 1898 | 32 | #574 | 0.12 |
| 1897 | 37 | #471 | 0.16 |
| 1896 | 39 | #465 | 0.16 |
| 1895 | 31 | #532 | 0.13 |
| 1894 | 36 | #466 | 0.16 |
| 1893 | 36 | #442 | 0.17 |
| 1892 | 41 | #417 | 0.19 |
| 1891 | 36 | #415 | 0.19 |
| 1890 | 25 | #528 | 0.13 |
| 1889 | 24 | #520 | 0.13 |
| 1888 | 35 | #422 | 0.20 |
| 1887 | 14 | #617 | 0.10 |
| 1886 | 12 | #669 | 0.08 |
| 1885 | 16 | #547 | 0.12 |
| 1884 | 16 | #527 | 0.12 |
| 1883 | 10 | #626 | 0.09 |
| 1882 | 9 | #642 | 0.08 |
| 1881 | 7 | #705 | 0.08 |
| 1880 | 8 | #644 | 0.09 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ethyl a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ethyl has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 82 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ethyl: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ethyl, and how old are they?
An estimated 211 Americans named Ethyl and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (9% of everyone recorded); the median is 80 years old and half are between 73 and 86. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 416 people named Ethyl (415 women and girls, 1 man or boy). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 318 born in the U.S. The Census count is 31% above 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 283,958 babies since 1880, Ethyl is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 34 babies recorded by SSA was a Ethyl (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 Ethyl
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
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 Ethyl and names like it
- Compare Ethyl and EthelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sEthyl peaked in 1915.
- Pennsylvania’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ethyl since 1910.
- Old English namesWiktionary’s origin for Ethyl: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1915The year the most babies were named Ethyl.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Ethyl alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with EMost given first.