Ethel · Shortlist Together

Meaning

We don’t have a verified meaning for Ethel.

We only publish meanings we can cite to a source you could check yourself. Most sites will give you one anyway; the ones you find elsewhere are often copied between sites without verification.

Its story

Popularity since 1880

Hover over or drag across the chart to see any year.

Per million boys born. Years with fewer than five births are not in the record, so the line breaks rather than dropping to zero.

See the 80 recorded years as a table

Ethel, per million boys born. Years absent from the table had fewer than five births.
Year	Per million
1880	54
1881	50
1884	61
1885	121
1886	54
1887	99
1888	99
1889	127
1890	72
1891	89
1892	139
1893	107
1894	95
1895	128
1896	100
1897	151
1898	196
1899	141
1900	133
1901	150
1902	155
1903	168
1904	133
1905	106
1906	120
1907	82
1908	143
1909	152
1910	170
1911	75
1912	42
1913	53
1914	40
1915	35
1916	27
1917	40
1918	35
1919	41
1920	22
1921	29
1922	23
1923	28
1924	36
1925	30
1926	27
1927	38
1928	43
1929	30
1930	34
1931	32
1932	21
1933	35
1934	29
1935	26
1936	16
1937	22
1938	24
1939	25
1940	10
1941	13
1942	11
1943	7
1944	6
1945	7
1946	7
1947	4
1948	3
1949	5
1950	5
1951	4
1952	7
1954	3
1955	4
1956	3
1957	2
1962	2
1963	4
1965	3
1966	4
1968	3

Where it’s loved

Most popular in these states

Ethel isn’t concentrated in any one state. Either it’s spread evenly, or no state reaches the 25 births over three years needed before a rate means anything.

More like it

More like Ethel

The numbers

Every figure

Births in 1968: 5
Rank in 1968: #4,136
How rare: 1 in 347,594 boys
Since 1880: 1,490

Ethel was last recorded in 1968. Fewer than five boys have been given the name in any year since, which is the point below which the record stops reporting.

Most popular in 1898, at 196 per million boys born.

There isn’t enough data for a ten-year trend: Ethel doesn’t appear in both ends of that window.

Figures from the US Social Security Administration’s 2025 release. How these numbers are made.