Ethel
given name · Latin script
Meaning: English short form, from Old English æðel ‘noble’
A female name· listed as female by the registers that count names by sex
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 41 countries · latest register: SSA, 2025
/ɛθəl/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Ethel is a female given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Jamaica it is the 29th most common given name.
- JMJamaica≈1 in 2K(inferred from the name graph)
- SGSingapore≈1 in 3.1K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 3.5K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Ethel itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 406 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.0K (inferred from the name graph)
41,868 people, 2020
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Jamaica, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts
(measured from records)One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled אטל in HU Hungary.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)English short form, from Old English æðel ‘noble’
Cited for this meaning 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Ethel, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Ethel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #453 | 41,868 | 1 in 7.9K | 42K | Ethel | 406 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈20,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.3K | — | Ethel | 105 |
| GB United Kingdom | #489 | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.5K | 3 | Ethel | 141 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 8.5K | — | Ethel | 11 |
| ZA South Africa | #715 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.8K | — | Ethel | 52 |
| HU Hungary | — | ≈2,800 est. | ≈1 in 3.4K | 33 | אטל | 3 |
| SG Singapore | #331 | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.1K | — | Ethel | 45 |
| NO Norway | — | 1,800as Edel | 1 in 3K | 4.9K | Ethel | 10 |
| JM Jamaica | #29 | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Ethel | 4 |
41,868 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); magyarnevek — given names by decade. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Ethel is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
t9th-century revival of an Old English name, a short form of various female personal names containing ethel ‘noble’ as a first element, for example pEtheldreda. The name enjoyed great popularity for a period at the beginning of the 20th century. It is at present out of fashion.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A female given name from Old English, popular at the turn of the 20th century.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swedish, Ethel är ett engelskt namn, ursprungligen en kortform till namn på Ethel- ’ädel’. Etel förekommer i den finlandssvenska almanackan 13 april.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
In French, Forme anglo-saxonne d’Adèle; origine germanique, signifie « noble ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, Abréviation de prénoms anglo-saxons en Æthel-, « noble ».
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Ethel Smythb. 1858GBEnglish composer and suffragette (1858–1944)
- Ethel Lilian Voynichb. 1864USBritish writer and musician (1864–1960)
- Ethel Griffiesb. 1878GBBritish actress (1878-1975)
- Ethel Barrymoreb. 1879USAmerican actress (1879–1959)
- Ethel Watersb. 1896USAmerican blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress (1896-1977)
- Ethel Mermanb. 1908USAmerican actress and singer (1908-1984)
- Ethel Catherwoodb. 1908CACanadian track and field athlete
- Judy Garlandb. 1922USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, singer, dancer and vaudevillian (1922–1969)
- Ethel Kennedyb. 1928USAmerican human-rights campaigner and spouse of US Senator Robert F. Kennedy
- Sophie Fiennesb. 1967GBnot in their usual nameEnglish film director and producer
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)72 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 41 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 42K | #1,018 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 156 | #5,713 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 124 | #1,018 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 34 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1968 | 5 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2018 | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Ethel mean, and where does it come from?
- English short form, from Old English æðel ‘noble’ Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- Is Ethel a male or female name?
- Ethel is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), Finland (DVV), France (INSEE, 2024) and Uruguay (INE Uruguay), among others.
- What are other forms of the name Ethel?
- In the etymology graph, Adela, Alina and Adelina are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Ethel have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 42 thousand people named Ethel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ethel.
- How common is the name Ethel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 41,868 people named Ethel in 2020, about 1 in 7.9 thousand residents.
- How common is Ethel compared with other names?
- In the United States, Ethel is the 453rd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Ethel?
- A machine transcription gives /ɛθəl/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Ethel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ethelThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Ethel” — the 453rd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.