Ilse
Ilse was given to 37 girls in 2025, #3,936 among girls’ names; 2,401 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,150 Americans named Ilse and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (89% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 16 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ilse by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ilse mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Ilse is “a diminutive of the female given name Elisabeth, popular in the 1920s and 1930s”
/ˈʔɪlzə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ilse?
#3,936 among girls’ names, 2025
Ilse rose from #4,337 in 2015 to #3,936 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 18.5 to 23.0 per million.
103 babies in 1993, the peak
Ilse peaked in 1993, when 103 girls were given it, #1,522 among girls’ names. The 37 births of 2025 are 36% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 37 | #3,936 | 23.0 |
| 2024 | 27 | #4,946 | 16.7 |
| 2023 | 28 | #4,793 | 17.5 |
| 2022 | 56 | #2,974 | 34.1 |
| 2021 | 35 | #4,126 | 21.3 |
| 2020 | 32 | #4,297 | 19.8 |
| 2019 | 32 | #4,385 | 19.1 |
| 2018 | 31 | #4,487 | 18.2 |
| 2017 | 29 | #4,737 | 16.8 |
| 2016 | 25 | #5,353 | 14.1 |
Every recorded year (96)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 33 | #4,337 | 18.5 |
| 2014 | 40 | #3,802 | 22.4 |
| 2013 | 31 | #4,570 | 17.7 |
| 2012 | 33 | #4,419 | 18.7 |
| 2011 | 43 | #3,627 | 24.4 |
| 2010 | 40 | #3,846 | 22.5 |
| 2009 | 52 | #3,213 | 28.3 |
| 2008 | 55 | #3,092 | 29.1 |
| 2007 | 44 | #3,672 | 22.9 |
| 2006 | 52 | #3,196 | 27.4 |
| 2005 | 70 | #2,482 | 37.9 |
| 2004 | 39 | #3,704 | 21.2 |
| 2003 | 63 | #2,561 | 34.5 |
| 2002 | 54 | #2,795 | 30.1 |
| 2001 | 48 | #2,974 | 26.7 |
| 2000 | 50 | #2,870 | 27.5 |
| 1999 | 49 | #2,795 | 27.6 |
| 1998 | 75 | #1,993 | 42.4 |
| 1997 | 76 | #1,914 | 43.7 |
| 1996 | 67 | #2,065 | 38.2 |
| 1995 | 72 | #1,922 | 40.9 |
| 1994 | 103 | #1,512 | 57.7 |
| 1993 | 103 | #1,522 | 56.9 |
| 1992 | 48 | #2,582 | 26.0 |
| 1991 | 77 | #1,835 | 41.1 |
| 1990 | 50 | #2,440 | 26.3 |
| 1989 | 36 | #2,996 | 19.5 |
| 1988 | 41 | #2,606 | 23.0 |
| 1987 | 24 | #3,664 | 13.8 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,269 | 8.2 |
| 1985 | 10 | #6,622 | 5.8 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,639 | 4.8 |
| 1983 | 5 | #10,860 | 3.0 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,630 | 3.5 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,435 | 4.2 |
| 1980 | 9 | #6,988 | 5.4 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,192 | 5.2 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,824 | 4.6 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,434 | 4.8 |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,052 | 4.1 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,642 | 5.9 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,216 | 4.8 |
| 1970 | 11 | #4,862 | 6.3 |
| 1969 | 10 | #4,829 | 5.9 |
| 1968 | 7 | #5,852 | 4.3 |
| 1967 | 7 | #5,673 | 4.2 |
| 1966 | 8 | #5,027 | 4.7 |
| 1965 | 14 | #3,465 | 7.9 |
| 1964 | 10 | #4,463 | 5.3 |
| 1962 | 9 | #4,666 | 4.6 |
| 1961 | 11 | #4,103 | 5.4 |
| 1960 | 8 | #4,927 | 4.0 |
| 1959 | 5 | #6,618 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,089 | 3.5 |
| 1957 | 10 | #4,035 | 4.9 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,539 | 3.0 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,904 | 3.6 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,087 | 4.6 |
| 1953 | 12 | #3,350 | 6.4 |
| 1952 | 5 | #5,891 | 2.7 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,738 | 2.8 |
| 1949 | 11 | #3,262 | 6.4 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,235 | 4.6 |
| 1944 | 5 | #4,842 | 3.8 |
| 1943 | 5 | #4,952 | 3.6 |
| 1939 | 9 | #3,004 | 8.2 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,597 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,528 | 4.7 |
| 1936 | 14 | #2,194 | 13.5 |
| 1935 | 7 | #3,556 | 6.7 |
| 1934 | 7 | #3,604 | 6.7 |
| 1933 | 9 | #2,985 | 8.9 |
| 1932 | 10 | #2,923 | 9.4 |
| 1931 | 9 | #3,078 | 8.5 |
| 1930 | 23 | #1,678 | 20.4 |
| 1929 | 16 | #2,129 | 14.3 |
| 1928 | 7 | #3,942 | 6.1 |
| 1927 | 15 | #2,382 | 12.6 |
| 1926 | 10 | #3,151 | 8.4 |
| 1924 | 10 | #3,243 | 8.0 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,810 | 6.7 |
| 1918 | 12 | #2,741 | 10.4 |
| 1917 | 6 | #4,313 | 5.5 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,391 | 7.7 |
| 1915 | 9 | #2,994 | 9.1 |
| 1914 | 10 | #2,337 | 13.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ilse a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ilse has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 96 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ilse: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ilse, and how old are they?
2,150 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 89% of the 2,401 Americans ever recorded as Ilse. The median Ilse alive today is 27 years old; half are between 16 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 4,972 people named Ilse (4,960 women and girls, 12 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,987 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 29 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 92 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 102 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 656 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 834 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 433 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Ilse born?
The states with the most babies named Ilse are Texas, California and Arizona, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Arizona is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 7 | #2,746 | 2.5× |
| California | 6 | #2,908 | 1.8× |
| Arizona | 5 | #1,122 | 1.5× |
Where Ilse is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ilse is most over-represented in Texas: since 1914 it was given 2.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ilse with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 3,878 babies since 1880, Ilse is the most given (62% of them). In 2025 it was given to 37 of their 59 babies (63%), again the 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 Ilse
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 Ilse and names like it
- Compare Ilse and IlsaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sIlse peaked in 1993.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ilse since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Ilse: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Ilse.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Ilse alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with IMost given first.