Earline
Of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning "to honor or glory".
Name Census estimates that about 4,618 living Americans carry the first name Earline. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Earline today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Earline births was 1927 (479 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Earline. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Earline is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 59 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Earline is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Earlines were born before 1962.
People living today
4.6K
~ 1 in 74,221 Americans
Peak year
1927
479 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1940 SSA rank
#3,223
Tracked since 1889
Census
Earline in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,452 people with the first name Earline, which placed it at #3,714 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
#3,714
National first-name rank
People counted
5.5K
5,452 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Earline
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Earline is Black at 59.1%. The next largest groups are White (36.3%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Earline 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 Earline at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American59.1% · 3,223
- White36.3% · 1,980
- Two or more races2.2% · 118
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 69
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 22
Gender
Gender distribution for Earline
Out of the 16,583 babies given the name Earline since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Earline as a male name
- Ranked #3,223 in 1940
- 6 male births in 1940
- Peak: 1927 (9 births)
Earline as a female name
- Ranked #14,087 in 1995
- 5 female births in 1995
- Peak: 1927 (470 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Earline appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,451 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Earline: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Earline from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 4,100 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
Earline 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 Earline during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Earlines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas recorded the most babies named Earline, while Iowa, New Jersey, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 515 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Earline
The name Earline is an English feminine given name derived from the Old English word "ēar," meaning "ear," and the suffix "-line," which is a diminutive form. It is believed to have originated in the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, in England.
While the name's exact origins are not well-documented, it is speculated that it may have been used as a nickname or a descriptive name for a person with distinctive ears or hearing abilities. Some sources suggest that it could also be related to the Old English word "ēarlian," meaning "to plough," and may have been used to refer to someone working in agriculture.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Earline can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholdings and tax assessments in England, completed in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The name appears in this document, though the specific context is unclear.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Earline. One of the earliest known was Earline de Montfort (c. 1200-1265), a medieval English noblewoman and the daughter of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. She played a role in the Barons' War against King Henry III in the 13th century.
Another notable Earline was Earline White (1876-1963), an American educator and civil rights activist from Mississippi. She was a pioneer in advocating for equal educational opportunities for African American children and worked tirelessly to improve the quality of education in her community.
In the world of literature, Earline Harris (1914-2001) was an American author and journalist known for her works depicting the lives of African Americans in the rural South. Her novel "The Bricks of Obediah" (1956) was well-received and earned her critical acclaim.
The name Earline also gained some prominence in the field of music. Earline Reid (1927-2011) was an American jazz singer and actress who performed with notable musicians like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. She was also known for her role in the 1957 film "A Face in the Crowd."
Lastly, Earline Renee Reid (born 1958) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL) and the Women's American Basketball Association (WABA) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
While not an exhaustive list, these examples highlight the diverse backgrounds and accomplishments of individuals who have carried the name Earline throughout history, spanning various fields and time periods.
People
Earline + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Earline as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Earline: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Earline?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,618 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Earline 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 74,221 US residents.
Is Earline a common name?
We classify Earline as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,583 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Earline most popular?
The single biggest year for Earline was 1927, when 479 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Earline is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Earline in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,452 people with the name Earline, or 1.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,714 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 Earline 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 Earline?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Earline appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,451 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Earline?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Earline is Black at 59.1%. The next largest groups are White (36.3%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Earline most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Earline in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (3,223 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 Earline in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Earline a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Earline 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 Earline still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Earline 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 Earline 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 Earline?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.