Evelynn
A feminine name of French origin, a modern combination of "Eve" and "lyn", meaning "wished for child".
Name Census estimates that about 14,413 living Americans carry the first name Evelynn. It sits at #304 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Evelynn today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Evelynn births was 2019 (1,030 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Evelynn. 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 Evelynn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Evelynn is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
14K
~ 1 in 23,781 Americans
Peak year
2019
1,030 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#304
Tracked since 1914
Census
Evelynn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,788 people with the first name Evelynn, which placed it at #2,673 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
#2,673
National first-name rank
People counted
8.8K
8,788 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Evelynn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Evelynn is White at 67.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.2%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Evelynn 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 Evelynn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.1% · 5,898
- Hispanic or Latino20.2% · 1,772
- Two or more races6.2% · 548
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 271
- Black or African American2.7% · 237
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 62
Popularity
Evelynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Evelynn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7,212 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Evelynn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Evelynn 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 Evelynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Evelynns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Evelynn, while Vermont, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 276 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Evelynn
The name Evelynn has its origins in the Hebrew language, and is believed to have derived from the Hebrew name Havah, which means "life-giver" or "life." It is a feminine form of the name Eve, which was the name given to the first woman in the Bible according to the Book of Genesis.
The name Evelynn is thought to have first appeared in the medieval period, with variations such as Avelina, Evelina, and Evalina being used in different parts of Europe. These variations were likely influenced by the Latin name Avelina, which was derived from the Germanic name Avila, meaning "desired one."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Evelynn can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England and parts of Wales, compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The name is listed as "Evelina" in this document.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Evelynn. Evelynn Brodstone (1884-1976) was a British artist and illustrator known for her watercolor paintings of landscapes and botanical subjects. Evelynn Brent (1899-1975) was an American actress who appeared in numerous films during the silent and early talkie era of Hollywood.
Evelynn Hammonds (born 1945) is an American academic and scholar who served as the Dean of Harvard College from 2008 to 2013. Evelynn M. Hammonds is also a renowned historian of science and has written extensively on the intersections of race, gender, and science.
Evelynn Laye (1900-1986) was a British actress and singer who enjoyed a successful career on the stage and in films during the 1920s and 1930s. She was particularly known for her performances in operettas and musicals.
Evelynn Oppenheim (1925-2008) was an American psychologist and author who made significant contributions to the field of child development and parenting. Her books, including "The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio" and "The Oppenheim-Mattis Scale," were widely used in assessing children's cognitive and motor skills.
People
Evelynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Evelynn 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
Evelynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Evelynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14,413 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Evelynn 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 23,781 US residents.
Is Evelynn a common name?
We classify Evelynn as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15,049 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Evelynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Evelynn was 2019, when 1,030 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Evelynn is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Evelynn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,788 people with the name Evelynn, or 2.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,673 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 Evelynn 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 Evelynn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Evelynn appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,790 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Evelynn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Evelynn is White at 67.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.2%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Evelynn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Evelynn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.1% (5,898 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 Evelynn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Evelynn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Evelynn 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 Evelynn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Evelynn 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 Evelynn 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 Americans are named Evelynn?
Want to know how many Americans are named Evelynn? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.