Ilsa
Ilsa was given to 22 girls in 2025, #5,621 among girls’ names; 917 Americans have been recorded with it since 1943 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ilsa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ilsa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ilsa is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ilsa?
#5,621 among girls’ names, 2025
Ilsa rose from #11,254 in 2015 to #5,621 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 5.0 to 13.7 per million.
34 babies in 2011, the peak
Ilsa peaked in 2011, when 34 girls were given it, #4,287 among girls’ names. The 22 births of 2025 are 65% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 22 | #5,621 | 13.7 |
| 2024 | 10 | #9,830 | 6.2 |
| 2023 | 12 | #8,668 | 7.5 |
| 2022 | 15 | #7,410 | 9.1 |
| 2021 | 14 | #7,780 | 8.5 |
| 2020 | 17 | #6,737 | 10.5 |
| 2019 | 24 | #5,354 | 14.3 |
| 2018 | 22 | #5,670 | 12.9 |
| 2017 | 18 | #6,635 | 10.4 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,382 | 5.6 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 9 | #11,254 | 5.0 |
| 2014 | 16 | #7,437 | 9.0 |
| 2013 | 31 | #4,569 | 17.7 |
| 2012 | 17 | #7,250 | 9.7 |
| 2011 | 34 | #4,287 | 19.3 |
| 2010 | 24 | #5,687 | 13.5 |
| 2009 | 23 | #5,968 | 12.5 |
| 2008 | 22 | #6,219 | 11.6 |
| 2007 | 22 | #6,179 | 11.4 |
| 2006 | 16 | #7,622 | 8.4 |
| 2005 | 17 | #6,942 | 9.2 |
| 2004 | 16 | #7,198 | 8.7 |
| 2003 | 22 | #5,480 | 12.0 |
| 2002 | 14 | #7,563 | 7.8 |
| 2001 | 21 | #5,429 | 11.7 |
| 2000 | 6 | #13,795 | 3.3 |
| 1999 | 21 | #5,093 | 11.8 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,203 | 6.2 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,309 | 5.2 |
| 1996 | 19 | #5,138 | 10.8 |
| 1995 | 10 | #8,308 | 5.7 |
| 1994 | 14 | #6,442 | 7.8 |
| 1993 | 12 | #7,183 | 6.6 |
| 1992 | 15 | #6,116 | 8.1 |
| 1991 | 9 | #8,848 | 4.8 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,085 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,012 | 7.3 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,262 | 4.6 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,268 | 8.2 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,740 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 14 | #5,039 | 8.3 |
| 1983 | 9 | #6,914 | 5.4 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,434 | 4.2 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,468 | 4.2 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,398 | 3.7 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,191 | 5.2 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,176 | 3.3 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,231 | 6.1 |
| 1975 | 12 | #4,958 | 8.2 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,285 | 5.5 |
| 1972 | 16 | #3,770 | 10.5 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,864 | 4.2 |
| 1970 | 8 | #6,004 | 4.6 |
| 1969 | 6 | #6,938 | 3.6 |
| 1968 | 9 | #4,903 | 5.5 |
| 1967 | 12 | #3,925 | 7.3 |
| 1966 | 13 | #3,629 | 7.7 |
| 1965 | 9 | #4,620 | 5.1 |
| 1964 | 10 | #4,462 | 5.3 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,529 | 3.6 |
| 1962 | 8 | #5,024 | 4.1 |
| 1961 | 5 | #6,947 | 2.5 |
| 1960 | 9 | #4,579 | 4.5 |
| 1958 | 9 | #4,298 | 4.5 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,671 | 2.9 |
| 1955 | 9 | #4,185 | 4.6 |
| 1951 | 6 | #5,078 | 3.3 |
| 1950 | 6 | #4,959 | 3.5 |
| 1948 | 6 | #4,887 | 3.5 |
| 1947 | 6 | #4,968 | 3.4 |
| 1945 | 5 | #4,841 | 3.8 |
| 1944 | 12 | #2,686 | 9.0 |
| 1943 | 6 | #4,401 | 4.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ilsa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ilsa has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 73 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ilsa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ilsa, and how old are they?
An estimated 871 Americans named Ilsa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 13 and 43. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,398 people named Ilsa (1,391 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 798 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 4,913 babies since 1880, Ilsa is the second most given (19% of them). In 2025 it was given to 22 of their 59 babies (37%), again the second most given.
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 Ilsa
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 Ilsa and names like it
- Compare Ilsa and IlseBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sIlsa peaked in 2011.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ilsa since 1910.
- The top names of 2011The year the most babies were named Ilsa.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Ilsa alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with IMost given first.