Angle
A medieval English feminine name derived from the Greek word "angelos," meaning messenger.
Name Census estimates that about 1,180 living Americans carry the first name Angle. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Angle today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Angle births was 1971 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Angle. 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.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 290,470 Americans
Peak year
1971
57 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2017 SSA rank
#12,378
Tracked since 1945
Census
Angle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,191 people with the first name Angle, which placed it at #7,067 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
#7,067
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,191 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
55.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Angle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Angle is Hispanic at 55.9%. The next largest groups are White (22.1%) and Black (15.9%). 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 Angle 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 Angle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino55.9% · 1,224
- White22.1% · 485
- Black or African American15.9% · 349
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 72
- Two or more races1.7% · 38
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Angle
Angle leans heavily female at 89.8% of total registrations, but 130 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Angle as a male name
- Ranked #12,378 in 2017
- 5 male births in 2017
- Peak: 1997 (10 births)
Angle as a female name
- Ranked #14,500 in 2016
- 6 female births in 2016
- Peak: 1975 (52 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Angle on both sides of the split. Of the 2,197 people counted with this name, 1,155 were male (52.6%) and 1,042 were female (47.4%).
Popularity
Angle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Angle from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 398 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Angle 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 Angle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Angles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Illinois, Mississippi, California recorded the most babies named Angle, while Tennessee, Georgia, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Angle
The name Angle is of Old English origin, derived from the word "angil," which means "hook" or "angle." It can also be traced back to the Old High German word "angul," meaning "fishhook" or "corner." This name likely originated in the early medieval period, around the 5th to 10th centuries, when the Anglo-Saxon tribes inhabited parts of modern-day England and northern Europe.
Historically, Angle was often associated with the Anglo-Saxon people, an umbrella term used to refer to various Germanic tribes that settled in England after the Roman withdrawal in the 5th century. These tribes, including the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, laid the foundations for the English language and culture.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Angle can be found in the medieval text "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" by Bede, an 8th-century Northumbrian monk and scholar. Bede mentioned the "Angli" (Angles) as one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Britain.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Angle. One of the most prominent was Angle of Pisa (c. 1170 – c. 1240), an Italian mathematician and philosopher who made significant contributions to the development of mathematics and logic. Another notable figure was Angle of Foligno (c. 1248 – 1309), an Italian Franciscan mystic and writer known for her spiritual visions and mystical experiences.
In the 16th century, Angle Merrick (c. 1530 – 1599) was an English musician and composer who served as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal under Queen Elizabeth I. Angle Gwyn (1536 – 1587), also known as Angle Bullen, was a mistress of King Henry VIII and the mother of his illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy.
More recently, Angle Giddings (1923 – 2017) was an American writer and women's rights activist who co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) and played a significant role in the modern feminist movement.
While the name Angle is not as common today as it once was, it has a rich historical background rooted in the Anglo-Saxon culture and language. Its association with notable figures in various fields, from mathematics and philosophy to music and activism, adds to its unique and intriguing legacy.
People
Angle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Angle 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
Angle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Angle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,180 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Angle 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 290,470 US residents.
Is Angle a common name?
We classify Angle as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,279 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Angle most popular?
The single biggest year for Angle was 1971, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Angle is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Angle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,191 people with the name Angle, or 0.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,067 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 Angle 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 Angle?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Angle on both sides of the split. Of the 2,197 people counted with this name, 1,155 were male (52.6%) and 1,042 were female (47.4%). 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 Angle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Angle is Hispanic at 55.9%. The next largest groups are White (22.1%) and Black (15.9%). 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 Angle most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Angle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.9% (1,224 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 Angle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Angle a female name?
Yes, 89.8% of people registered as Angle 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 Angle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Angle 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 Angle 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 Angle?
Want to know how many people share the name Angle? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.