Ilse
A feminine name of German origin meaning "pledged to God".
Name Census estimates that about 2,074 living Americans carry the first name Ilse. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ilse today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ilse births was 1993 (103 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ilse. 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
2.1K
~ 1 in 165,262 Americans
Peak year
1993
103 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,929
Tracked since 1914
Popularity
Ilse: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ilse from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 720 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ilse 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 Ilse during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ilses live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, California, Arizona recorded the most babies named Ilse, while Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 170 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ilse
The name Ilse is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old German name Illa, which was a diminutive form of names beginning with the element "il" meaning "battle" or "struggle." The name first appeared during the Middle Ages in regions where German dialects were spoken.
Ilse was a relatively common name in medieval Germany, particularly in areas like Bavaria and Saxony. It was sometimes spelled as Ilsa, Ilza, or Ylsa during this time period. The name may have been influenced by the Old Norse name Hildr, meaning "battle," which had a similar sound and meaning.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Ilse of Reinstein, a 13th-century German noblewoman who was a prominent figure in the court of the Landgrave of Thuringia. Another notable Ilse from the Middle Ages was Ilse Burg, a 14th-century German poet and writer who composed religious works.
In the 16th century, Ilse von Büren was a German Protestant reformer and advocate for women's education. She is remembered for her efforts to establish schools for girls in several German cities.
During the 19th century, Ilse Frapan (1849-1908) was a German novelist and playwright known for her works exploring social issues and women's roles in society. She was considered a pioneer of naturalism in German literature.
Another significant figure was Ilse Bing (1899-1998), a German-American photographer and photojournalist who is renowned for her pioneering work in modern photography and her contributions to the development of photojournalism.
Ilse Koch (1906-1967) was a notorious German Nazi concentration camp guard who earned the nickname "The Witch of Buchenwald" for her cruelty and sadistic behavior towards prisoners during World War II.
Despite its Germanic roots, the name Ilse has been used in various cultures and regions over time, contributing to its rich historical significance.
People
Ilse + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ilse as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ilse: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ilse?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,074 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ilse 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 165,262 US residents.
Is Ilse a common name?
We classify Ilse as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,364 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ilse most popular?
The single biggest year for Ilse was 1993, when 103 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ilse is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ilse a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ilse 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.
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.