Name Awesome

Ileen

Girls' name

Variant of Eileen

Ileen has been given to 2,152 babies in the U.S. since 1895. 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 1924, with 51 recorded.

Babies named Ileen, 2024

1 in 557,000

Ileen over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ileen: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Eileen

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ileen means

Ileen is a variant of Eileen.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Ileen is used in English (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /aɪ.ˈlin/ and /ˈaɪ.lin/ for Ileen.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Ileen → Eileen. The family’s proposed meaning is “radiance, beauty”, recorded in English with the source elements oíph.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Eileen.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,152 girls were recorded with the name Ileen between 1895 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 51 in 1924; its best national rank was #1,069 in 1925.

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 Ileen?

Ileen had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 557,000
6 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 270,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
386,177 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ileen 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 2024 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 386,177 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ileen. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ileens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ileen was born before 1947 — so the typical Ileen is around 78 today.

Median birth year
1947
About 78 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
18.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
997
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.6% of all recorded uses (422).

Is Ileen 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 1924 (51)
Years since peak
101
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,069
1925

Spellings of Ileen

Ileen is not the most common spelling — Ellen is, with 39.1% against Ileen's 0.31%.

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 Ileen is used

Across 1910–2025, Ileen was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 158,082 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 50,000
  2. 2Utah1 in 50,000
  3. 3Michigan1 in 100,000
  4. 4Iowa1 in —
  5. 5Illinois1 in —
  6. 6Minnesota1 in —
  7. 7Missouri1 in —
  8. 8New York1 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. Ileen has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ileen around the world

Where Ileen ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1965–1965
    #674
    in 1965

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Ileen 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
#1,069
1925
Peak year
1924
51 that year
First recorded
1895
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
2,152
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Ileen

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

IlenaAleenIleanaIleanIleneLeenEleenNadeenDaneenLoreenHaneenTaleenJasleenSaleenHarleenJoleenIleyShireenMaheenAyleenJazleenQueenIleahRayleen

Names with a curve like Ileen

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

MadlynAileneFelipaAudryMadeleneEileneMichelinaWanitaSantosDannieChristeenCruz

Sibling names for Ileen

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 Ileen

Top names of 1924, Ileen's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1925Girls' names starting with I