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Ethyl

Girls' name

Noble, through Ethel

Ethyl has been given to 2,395 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1915, with 92 recorded.

Babies named Ethyl, 1971

1 in 686,000

Ethyl over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ethyl: meaning, origin, and history

Noble, through Ethel

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ethyl means

Ethyl belongs to the name family reached through Ethyl → Ethel. Its meaning is “noble”.

Origin, language, and formation

Ethyl is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ethel.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,395 girls were recorded with the name Ethyl between 1880 and 1971. Its highest annual count was 92 in 1915; its best national rank was #415 in 1891.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Ethyl?

Ethyl had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1971, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1971
1 in 686,000
5 of 3,432,187 births
Among girls only
1 in 333,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1971
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
475,803 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ethyl sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1971 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 475,803 children born in 1971 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ethyl. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ethyls were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ethyl was born before 1916 — so the typical Ethyl is around 109 today.

Median birth year
1916
About 109 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
27.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
5.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
93
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 27.3% of all recorded uses (654).

Is Ethyl rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1915 (92)
Years since peak
110
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#415
1891

Spellings of Ethyl

Ethyl is not the most common spelling — Ethel is, with 95.1% against Ethyl's 0.82%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Ethyl is used

Across 1910–2025, Ethyl was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 334,921 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Illinois1 in 100,000
  2. 2Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  3. 3Alabama1 in —
  4. 4California1 in —
  5. 5Iowa1 in —
  6. 6Kentucky1 in —
  7. 7Michigan1 in —
  8. 8Minnesota1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Ethyl has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ethyl by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#415
1891
Peak year
1915
92 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
1971
All-time count
2,395
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Ethyl

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

EthanEtherEthaEthlynEthelynEthyleEtheleneEthneEtheldaEthieEthelEthalEtheleenEthellEthelineEthnaEthelmaeEthelyneRachylEthenaEthleenEthelleEtherealEthany

Names with a curve like Ethyl

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Ethyl, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

HilmaMaybellLudieClydeCordieHildegardeExieHedwigTennieOcieVerdieLouie

Sibling names for Ethyl

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Ethyl

Top names of 1915, Ethyl's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1891Girls' names starting with E