Odelia
A feminine given name of Old French origin meaning "wealth".
Name Census estimates that about 1,271 living Americans carry the first name Odelia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Odelia today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Odelia births was 2024 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Odelia. 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 Odelia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 269,673 Americans
Peak year
2024
56 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,952
Tracked since 1880
Census
Odelia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,400 people with the first name Odelia, which placed it at #9,784 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
#9,784
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,400 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
38.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Odelia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Odelia is Hispanic at 38.1%. The next largest groups are White (33.7%) and Black (18.5%). 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 Odelia 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 Odelia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino38.1% · 533
- White33.7% · 472
- Black or African American18.5% · 259
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 80
- Two or more races2.6% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 19
Popularity
Odelia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Odelia 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 343 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Odelia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Odelia 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 Odelia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Odelias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Texas, Louisiana, New York recorded the most babies named Odelia, while North Carolina, Minnesota, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 85 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Odelia
The name Odelia is derived from the Greek word "odelos", which means "prosperous" or "wealthy". It has its roots in ancient Greek culture, dating back to the 5th century BC.
The earliest known record of the name Odelia can be found in a Greek inscription from the island of Delos, where it was used as a feminine name. The name gained popularity during the Hellenistic period, which spanned from the 4th to the 1st century BC, when Greek culture spread throughout the Mediterranean region.
In ancient Greek mythology, Odelia was sometimes associated with the goddess Demeter, who was the goddess of agriculture and fertility. This connection likely contributed to the name's meaning of prosperity and abundance.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Odelia was Odelia of Corinth, a Greek poet and philosopher who lived in the 3rd century BC. She is known for her works on philosophy and ethics, which unfortunately have been lost to history.
Another notable figure was Odelia of Alexandria, a renowned mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 4th century AD. She made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics and is credited with developing a method for calculating the position of the planets.
In the Middle Ages, the name Odelia was occasionally used in various European regions, particularly in Italy and France. One notable bearer of the name was Odelia of Montpellier, a 13th-century French noblewoman and patron of the arts, who sponsored many artists and writers during her lifetime.
During the Renaissance period, the name gained some popularity among the Italian nobility. Odelia Borghese, born in 1564, was an Italian countess and patron of the arts, known for her support of artists and writers in Rome.
In more recent history, Odelia Piper was an English author and poet who lived from 1829 to 1892. She was renowned for her romantic poetry and novels, which explored themes of love, nature, and the human condition.
People
Odelia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Odelia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Odelia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Odelia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,271 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Odelia 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 269,673 US residents.
Is Odelia a common name?
We classify Odelia as "Rare". It ranks above 91.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,803 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Odelia most popular?
The single biggest year for Odelia was 2024, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Odelia is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Odelia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,400 people with the name Odelia, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,784 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 Odelia 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 Odelia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Odelia appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,396 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 Odelia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Odelia is Hispanic at 38.1%. The next largest groups are White (33.7%) and Black (18.5%). 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 Odelia most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Odelia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.1% (533 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 Odelia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Odelia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Odelia 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 Odelia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Odelia 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 Odelia 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 share the name Odelia?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.