Odile
A feminine name of Germanic origin meaning "wealthy".
Name Census estimates that about 65 living Americans carry the first name Odile. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Odile today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Odile births was 1915 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Odile. 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 Odile with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Odile is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Odiles were born before 1965.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Odile. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
65
~ 1 in 5,273,144 Americans
Peak year
1915
27 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
2018 SSA rank
#15,173
Tracked since 1882
Census
Odile in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 647 people with the first name Odile, which placed it at #17,179 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
#17,179
National first-name rank
People counted
647
647 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Odile
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Odile is White at 57.3%. The next largest groups are Black (28.6%) and Hispanic (9.4%). 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 Odile 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 Odile at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.3% · 371
- Black or African American28.6% · 185
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 61
- Two or more races2.5% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4
Popularity
Odile: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Odile from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 179 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Odile 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 Odile during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Odiles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Odile
The name Odile originated from the French form of the Germanic name Odilia, derived from the Old High German name Uodalhilt, composed of the elements "uodal" meaning wealth or fortune, and "hilti" meaning battle. It was initially a feminine name used among the Franks and other Germanic tribes in the early medieval period.
The name gained widespread popularity during the Middle Ages due to the veneration of Saint Odilia, a 7th-century Alsatian abbess who was blind at birth but later regained her sight through divine intervention. She is the patron saint of good eyesight and is celebrated in Alsace and other parts of France and Germany.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Odile appears in the 8th-century work "Vita Odiliae" by the Benedictine monk Hrabanus Maurus, which details the life and miracles of Saint Odilia. The name also appears in various medieval charters and records from the region of Alsace, where many noble families bore the name.
Notable historical figures named Odile include Odile of Bavaria (c. 1227–1273), a Duchess of Bavaria and the wife of Louis II, Duke of Bavaria. Another prominent bearer was Odile de Champdivers (c. 1390–1424), a French noblewoman who became a nun and was later beatified by the Catholic Church.
In the 16th century, Odile de Vaux (c. 1500–1568) was a French noblewoman and heiress who played a significant role in the French Wars of Religion. In the realm of literature, Odile de Prailly (1632–1718) was a French writer and epistolarian who corresponded with prominent figures of her time.
During the 19th century, Odile Defraye (1801–1868) was a French painter and engraver known for her portraits and historical scenes. More recently, Odile Crick (1920–2007) was a British artist and the wife of the famous molecular biologist Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.
People
Odile + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Odile 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
Odile: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Odile?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 65 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Odile 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 5,273,144 US residents.
Is Odile a common name?
We classify Odile as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 788 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Odile most popular?
The single biggest year for Odile was 1915, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Odile is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Odile in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 647 people with the name Odile, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,179 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 Odile 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 Odile?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Odile leans strongly female. 637 people counted with this name were female (98.0%), compared with 13 male bearers (2.0%). 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 Odile?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Odile is White at 57.3%. The next largest groups are Black (28.6%) and Hispanic (9.4%). 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 Odile most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Odile in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.3% (371 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 Odile in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Odile a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Odile 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 Odile still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Odile 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 Odile 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 are named Odile?
Find out how many people share the name Odile on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.