Liesel
A feminine name of German origin meaning "consecrated to God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,172 living Americans carry the first name Liesel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Liesel today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Liesel births was 2015 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Liesel. 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 Liesel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 292,453 Americans
Peak year
2015
63 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,700
Tracked since 1954
Census
Liesel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,197 people with the first name Liesel, which placed it at #10,921 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
#10,921
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,197 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Liesel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Liesel is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Liesel 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 Liesel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.0% · 994
- Hispanic or Latino8.4% · 101
- Two or more races4.2% · 50
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 29
- Black or African American1.9% · 23
Popularity
Liesel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Liesel from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 399 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Liesel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Liesel 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 Liesel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Liesels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, California, Utah recorded the most babies named Liesel, while Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Liesel
The name Liesel originates from the German language and has its roots in the medieval era. It is a diminutive form of the name Elizabeth, derived from the Germanic elements "el" meaning "god" and "liut" meaning "people" or "nation." The name Elizabeth itself was popularized by the biblical figure Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Liesel can be found in the 14th century German literature, where it was used as a nickname or pet form of Elizabeth. The variation "Liesl" was also commonly used during this time period in German-speaking regions.
In the 16th century, during the Protestant Reformation, the name Liesel gained popularity among the German Protestant communities as a way to honor the biblical Elizabeth while distancing themselves from the more Catholic-associated forms of the name.
One notable historical figure with the name Liesel was Liesel Wagner, a German operatic soprano who lived from 1883 to 1962. She was a prominent performer in the early 20th century and was particularly renowned for her interpretations of Wagnerian roles.
Another significant individual with the name Liesel was Liesel Landauer, a German-Jewish writer and translator who lived from 1925 to 2015. She survived the Holocaust and later became known for her translations of works by authors like Günter Grass and Max Frisch.
In the literary realm, the name Liesel gained widespread recognition through the character of Liesel Meminger, the protagonist of the novel "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, published in 2005. The book, set in Nazi Germany during World War II, tells the story of a young girl's love for books and the power of words in the face of adversity.
Liesel Pritzker, an American billionaire and philanthropist born in 1958, is another notable figure with this name. She is a member of the Pritzker family, known for their business ventures and charitable contributions.
Finally, Liesel Adler, a German-born American actress born in 1946, is also a notable bearer of the name. She has appeared in various films and television shows throughout her career.
People
Liesel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Liesel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Liesel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Liesel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,172 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Liesel 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 292,453 US residents.
Is Liesel a common name?
We classify Liesel as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,213 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Liesel most popular?
The single biggest year for Liesel was 2015, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Liesel is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Liesel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,197 people with the name Liesel, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,921 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 Liesel 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 Liesel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Liesel appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,206 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 Liesel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Liesel is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Liesel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Liesel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (994 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 Liesel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Liesel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Liesel 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 Liesel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Liesel 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 Liesel 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 Liesel as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.