Evelyn
A feminine name of English origin meaning "life" or "wished for child".
Our analysis of Social Security Administration records puts the number of living Americans named Evelyn at approximately 287,870. That places it at #8 in the national ranking of first names. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Evelyn today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Evelyn births was 1921 (14,308 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Travis (286,986).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Evelyn. 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 Evelyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Evelyn is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,898 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
288K
~ 1 in 1,191 Americans
Peak year
1921
14,308 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8
Tracked since 1880
Census
Evelyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 293,624 people with the first name Evelyn, which placed it at #176 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
#176
National first-name rank
People counted
294K
293,624 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
97.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Evelyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Evelyn is White at 53.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.0%) and Black (10.0%). 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 Evelyn 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 Evelyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.4% · 156,864
- Hispanic or Latino28.0% · 82,335
- Black or African American10.0% · 29,328
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 14,603
- Two or more races3.0% · 8,769
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,725
Gender
Gender distribution for Evelyn
Out of the 632,472 babies given the name Evelyn since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Evelyn as a male name
- Ranked #11,306 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1930 (50 births)
Evelyn as a female name
- Ranked #8 in 2024
- 9,116 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (14,278 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Evelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 293,621 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Evelyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Evelyn 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 124,521 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Evelyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Evelyn 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 Evelyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 0 | 1,817 | 1,817 |
| 1890s | 0 | 5,648 | 5,648 |
| 1900s | 81 | 18,603 | 18,684 |
| 1910s | 218 | 91,492 | 91,710 |
| 1920s | 355 | 124,166 | 124,521 |
| 1930s | 347 | 69,363 | 69,710 |
| 1940s | 173 | 48,158 | 48,331 |
| 1950s | 145 | 38,411 | 38,556 |
| 1960s | 101 | 22,581 | 22,682 |
| 1970s | 57 | 9,975 | 10,032 |
| 1980s | 133 | 10,976 | 11,109 |
| 1990s | 78 | 15,126 | 15,204 |
| 2000s | 70 | 40,729 | 40,799 |
| 2010s | 103 | 86,965 | 87,068 |
| 2020s | 37 | 46,564 | 46,601 |
Geography
Where Evelyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Evelyn, while Alaska, Wyoming, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,826 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Evelyn
The name Evelyn has its origins in the ancient French and English languages, deriving from the Germanic name Aveline, which itself is a diminutive form of the name Avila. The root words "avi" or "aval" are believed to mean "desired" or "wished for child" in these old languages.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Evelyn dates back to the 12th century in England, where a Norman heiress named Evelyn de Muncie was documented in records. However, the name gained more widespread popularity in the 17th century, especially after the publication of John Dryden's poem "The Flower and the Leaf" in 1700, which featured a character named Evelyn.
In the realm of historical figures, Evelyn is the name of several notable individuals, including Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), a renowned English writer and satirist best known for his novels such as "Brideshead Revisited" and "A Handful of Dust". Another famous Evelyn was Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), an influential English writer on mysticism and Christian spirituality.
The name Evelyn has also been associated with prominent figures in the arts, such as Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919), a British painter and feminist who was part of the Arts and Crafts movement, and Evelyn Lear (1926-2012), an American operatic soprano who performed with major companies worldwide.
In the field of science and exploration, Evelyn Cheesman (1881-1969) was a British entomologist and explorer who led several expeditions to the Pacific Islands, while Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-present) is an American mathematician and one of the first African-American women to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics.
Throughout history, the name Evelyn has been associated with a sense of grace, elegance, and refinement, reflecting its French and English roots. Its enduring popularity over centuries can be attributed to its melodic sound and the positive connotations it carries.
People
Evelyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Evelyn 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
Evelyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Evelyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 287,870 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Evelyn 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 1,191 US residents.
Is Evelyn a common name?
We classify Evelyn as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 632,472 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Evelyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Evelyn was 1921, when 14,308 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Evelyn is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Evelyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 293,624 people with the name Evelyn, or 97.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #176 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 Evelyn 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 Evelyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Evelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 293,621 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Evelyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Evelyn is White at 53.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.0%) and Black (10.0%). 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 Evelyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Evelyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.4% (156,864 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 Evelyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Evelyn a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Evelyn 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 Evelyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Evelyn 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 Evelyn 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 common is the name Evelyn?
See how many Americans are named Evelyn on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.