Ainslie
Of Scottish origin, indicating a meadow or a clearing.
Name Census estimates that about 600 living Americans carry the first name Ainslie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ainslie today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ainslie births was 2009 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ainslie. 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 Ainslie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
600
~ 1 in 571,257 Americans
Peak year
2009
40 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,378
Tracked since 1977
Census
Ainslie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 628 people with the first name Ainslie, which placed it at #17,522 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
#17,522
National first-name rank
People counted
628
628 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ainslie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ainslie is White at 83.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.1%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Ainslie 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 Ainslie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.9% · 527
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 38
- Two or more races5.1% · 32
- Black or African American2.9% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 13
Popularity
Ainslie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ainslie from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 237 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ainslie 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 Ainslie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ainslies live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ainslie
The name Ainslie has its origins in the Scottish Borders region, where it derived from the place name Ainsley or Annandale. The name is thought to have come from the Old English words "an" meaning "one" and "hol" meaning "hollow" or "valley," referring to a single valley area.
In the 12th century, the name appeared as a surname in records from the village of Ainsley in Berwickshire. One of the earliest recorded instances was Robertus de Ainslie, who was mentioned in a charter from around 1165. The name later spread across Scotland and parts of Northern England as a given name.
One of the earliest known bearers of Ainslie as a first name was Ainslie Armstrong, a Scottish soldier who fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the 17th century. He was born around 1615 and served under the Marquis of Montrose, becoming a prominent military figure during the conflict.
In the 18th century, Ainslie Douglas (1720-1812) was a Scottish naval officer who served in the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War. He achieved the rank of Admiral and was also a member of Parliament for the Haddington Burghs constituency.
Another notable bearer of the name was Ainslie Pemberton (1854-1936), a British artist and illustrator known for his work in children's literature. He illustrated books such as "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" and "The Jackdaw of Rheims" by Robert Browning.
In the 20th century, Ainslie Embree (1897-1968) was an American anthropologist and educator who made significant contributions to the study of South Asian cultures. He was a professor at Duke University and served as the president of the American Anthropological Association.
Another prominent figure was Ainslie Meares (1910-1986), an Australian psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of stress management and relaxation techniques. He developed a method called "Meares' Relaxation" which gained widespread recognition and was used to treat various psychological and physical conditions.
People
Ainslie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ainslie 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
Ainslie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ainslie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 600 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ainslie 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 571,257 US residents.
Is Ainslie a common name?
We classify Ainslie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 610 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ainslie most popular?
The single biggest year for Ainslie was 2009, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ainslie is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ainslie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 628 people with the name Ainslie, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,522 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 Ainslie 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 Ainslie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ainslie leans strongly female. 601 people counted with this name were female (95.1%), compared with 31 male bearers (4.9%). 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 Ainslie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ainslie is White at 83.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.1%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Ainslie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ainslie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.9% (527 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 Ainslie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ainslie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ainslie 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 Ainslie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ainslie 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 Ainslie 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 share the name Ainslie?
You can see how many people have the name Ainslie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.