Achille
A French masculine name derived from the Greek hero Achilles.
Name Census estimates that about 120 living Americans carry the first name Achille. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Achille today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Achille births was 1924 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Achille. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Achille with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
120
~ 1 in 2,856,286 Americans
Peak year
1924
21 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,296
Tracked since 1911
Census
Achille in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 465 people with the first name Achille, which placed it at #21,716 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,716
National first-name rank
People counted
465
465 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Achille
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Achille is White at 58.3%. The next largest groups are Black (32.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Achille described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Achille at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.3% · 271
- Black or African American32.3% · 150
- Two or more races4.1% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3
Popularity
Achille: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Achille from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 137 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Achille by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Achille during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Achilles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Achille
The name Achille originates from the Greek word Ἀχιλλεύς (Achilleus), derived from the phrase "ἄχος λαῶν" (achos laon) meaning "grief of the people". It gained prominence in ancient Greece as the name of the legendary warrior Achilles from Homer's Iliad, one of the most renowned figures in Greek mythology.
Achilles, son of the mortal Peleus and the nymph Thetis, played a central role in the Trojan War, renowned for his bravery, skill, and rage on the battlefield. His name has become synonymous with valor, strength, and invincibility, due to the myth of his legendary heel, which was his only vulnerable spot.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Achille can be traced back to ancient Greek literature and historical accounts of the Trojan War. It later gained popularity across Europe during the Renaissance period, as classical Greek and Roman literature and culture experienced a resurgence.
Among the notable historical figures who bore the name Achille, one of the earliest was Achille de Harlay (1536-1616), a French statesman and the first President of the Parlement of Paris. Achille Dufour (1833-1900) was a Swiss military officer and politician who served as the President of the Swiss Confederation in 1887.
In the artistic realm, Achille Fovier (1835-1924) was a renowned French painter known for his landscapes and portraits. Achille Leclère (1785-1853) was a French architect who designed several notable buildings in Paris, including the Church of St-Vincent-de-Paul.
Achille Compagnoni (1947-2009) was an Italian mountaineer and explorer, best known for being the first person to reach the summit of K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, in 1954.
These are just a few examples of the many historical figures who have borne the name Achille, a name deeply rooted in Greek mythology and associated with heroism, courage, and legendary feats.
People
Achille + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Achille as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Achille: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Achille?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 120 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Achille going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,856,286 US residents.
Is Achille a common name?
We classify Achille as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 393 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Achille most popular?
The single biggest year for Achille was 1924, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Achille is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Achille in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 465 people with the name Achille, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,716 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Achille in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Achille?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Achille leans strongly male. 443 people counted with this name were male (97.4%), compared with 12 female bearers (2.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Achille?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Achille is White at 58.3%. The next largest groups are Black (32.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Achille most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Achille in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.3% (271 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Achille in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Achille a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Achille in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Achille still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Achille in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Achille can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Achille?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.