Eleonore
Feminine form of French origin meaning "shining light, radiant one".
Name Census estimates that about 392 living Americans carry the first name Eleonore. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Eleonore today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eleonore births was 1923 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eleonore. 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 Eleonore with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
392
~ 1 in 874,373 Americans
Peak year
1923
33 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,686
Tracked since 1882
Census
Eleonore in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,222 people with the first name Eleonore, which placed it at #10,756 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
#10,756
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,222 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eleonore
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleonore is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.9%) and Hispanic (5.0%). 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 Eleonore 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 Eleonore at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.7% · 1,023
- Black or African American5.9% · 72
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 61
- Two or more races3.4% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 24
Popularity
Eleonore: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eleonore from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 268 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Eleonore remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eleonore 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 Eleonore during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eleonores live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. New York, Illinois, Michigan recorded the most babies named Eleonore, while Ohio, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eleonore
The name Eleonore has its origins in the Greek language, derived from the elements "helene" meaning light or bright, and "noros" meaning man or hero. It is a feminine form of the masculine name Eleanoros, and is closely related to the name Eleanor.
The name first appeared in ancient Greek literature and mythology, where it was associated with the concepts of radiance, beauty, and strength. It was a popular name among the nobility and ruling classes of ancient Greece and Rome.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Eleonore is found in the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus, who mentioned an Eleonore of Argos in his work "The Histories" from around 440 BCE. In the Christian tradition, there is a Saint Eleonore who was a 9th-century Benedictine abbess and is venerated in parts of Germany and France.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Eleonore. One of the most famous was Eleonore of Aquitaine (1122-1204), a powerful and influential figure in medieval Europe who was the Duchess of Aquitaine and later the Queen consort of both France and England.
Another notable Eleonore was Eleonore of Austria (1498-1558), who was the Queen of Portugal and later the Queen of France as the wife of King Francis I. She played a significant role in the cultural and artistic renaissance of the French court during her time.
In the realm of literature, Eleonore was the name of a character in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's famous novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774), which helped popularize the name in Germany and other parts of Europe.
The name Eleonore has also been borne by several artists and writers, including the French novelist Eleonore de Vallon (1751-1806), and the Austrian composer Eleonore von Ertmann (1805-1877).
Other notable figures named Eleonore include Eleonore of Brandenburg (1583-1654), a German princess and Electress of Brandenburg, and Eleonore of Hesse-Rotenburg (1675-1720), a German noblewoman and Landgravine of Hesse-Rotenburg.
People
Eleonore + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eleonore 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
Eleonore: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eleonore?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 392 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eleonore 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 874,373 US residents.
Is Eleonore a common name?
We classify Eleonore as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,074 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eleonore most popular?
The single biggest year for Eleonore was 1923, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eleonore is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eleonore in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,222 people with the name Eleonore, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,756 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 Eleonore 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 Eleonore?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eleonore appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,226 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Eleonore?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleonore is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.9%) and Hispanic (5.0%). 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 Eleonore most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eleonore in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (1,023 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 Eleonore in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eleonore a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Eleonore 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 Eleonore still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eleonore 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 Eleonore 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 Eleonore?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Eleonore, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.