Aileen
Irish feminine form of the Gaelic name Aideen, meaning "little fire".
Name Census estimates that about 24,434 living Americans carry the first name Aileen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aileen today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aileen births was 2009 (685 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aileen. 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 Aileen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
24K
~ 1 in 14,028 Americans
Peak year
2009
685 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2011 SSA rank
#718
Tracked since 1880
Census
Aileen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 25,237 people with the first name Aileen, which placed it at #1,389 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
#1,389
National first-name rank
People counted
25K
25,237 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
8.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
45.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aileen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aileen is Hispanic at 45.2%. The next largest groups are White (31.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.1%). 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 Aileen 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 Aileen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino45.2% · 11,398
- White31.7% · 8,005
- Asian and Pacific Islander18.1% · 4,573
- Black or African American3.0% · 747
- Two or more races1.7% · 421
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 93
Gender
Gender distribution for Aileen
Out of the 37,298 babies given the name Aileen since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Aileen as a male name
- Ranked #12,340 in 2011
- 5 male births in 2011
- Peak: 2011 (5 births)
Aileen as a female name
- Ranked #718 in 2024
- 390 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (685 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aileen appears almost entirely female. Of the 25,227 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Aileen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aileen from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 5,820 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Aileen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aileen 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 Aileen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aileens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Aileen, while Vermont, District of Columbia, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 678 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aileen
The name Aileen has its origins in the Gaelic language, specifically in Ireland. It is derived from the old Irish name "Aoibhillinn," which means "little beautiful one" or "small and beauteous." The name is thought to have been in use since the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century.
The name Aileen is a diminutive form of the Irish name Aoife, which itself means "beautiful" or "radiant." The spelling has evolved over time, with variations such as Aylina, Ailene, and Ailinn appearing in historical records.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Aileen can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. In the year 1231, an entry mentions an "Aileen ingen Ruaidhri," which translates to "Aileen, daughter of Ruaidhri."
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Aileen. One of the most famous was Aileen Aroon, a 17th-century Irish noblewoman and muse of the Irish poet Sir Samuel Ferguson (1810-1886), who wrote a famous poem entitled "Aileen Aroon" in her honor.
Another notable Aileen was Aileen O'Beirne (1902-1974), an Irish sculptor and artist known for her religious statues and works depicting Irish mythology. Her sculptures can be found in churches and public spaces throughout Ireland.
In the literary world, Aileen Piper (1909-1997) was a renowned Australian author and poet, known for her works exploring the themes of love, nature, and the human experience. Her poetry collections include "The Half-Inhabited World" and "The Burning Cloud."
Aileen Wuornos (1956-2002) was an American serial killer, convicted of killing seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Her life and trial were the subject of the 2003 biographical crime drama film "Monster," in which Charlize Theron portrayed Wuornos and won an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Finally, Aileen Quinn (born 1971) is an American actress best known for her role as Annie in the 1982 film adaptation of the musical "Annie." She had a successful career as a child actress and has continued to work in the entertainment industry as an adult.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Aileen
People
Aileen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aileen 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
Aileen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aileen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24,434 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aileen 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 14,028 US residents.
Is Aileen a common name?
We classify Aileen as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 37,298 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aileen most popular?
The single biggest year for Aileen was 2009, when 685 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aileen is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aileen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 25,237 people with the name Aileen, or 8.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,389 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 Aileen 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 Aileen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aileen appears almost entirely female. Of the 25,227 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Aileen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aileen is Hispanic at 45.2%. The next largest groups are White (31.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.1%). 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 Aileen most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Aileen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.2% (11,398 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 Aileen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aileen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aileen in the SSA data are female. 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 Aileen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aileen 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 Aileen 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 are named Aileen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.