Name Awesome

Ilka

Girls' name

Diminutive of Ilona

Ilka has been given to 249 babies in the U.S. since 1955. 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 1970, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Ilka, 1998

1 in 613,000

Ilka over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ilka: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Ilona

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ilka means

Ilka is a diminutive of Ilona.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Ilka is used in Hungarian and German.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈil.kɒ/ for Ilka.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Ilka → Ilona → Helen → Helena → Ἑλένη. The family’s meaning is “to shine, warm, smoulder, burn”, recorded in Ancient Greek with the source elements swel-.

Origin, language, and formation

Ilka is used in Hungarian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ilona.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Hungarian, Ilka is pronounced [ˈilkɒ].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 249 girls were recorded with the name Ilka between 1955 and 1998. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1970; its best national rank was #3,349 in 1970.

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 Ilka?

Ilka had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1998, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1998
1 in 613,000
6 of 3,677,189 births
Among girls only
1 in 294,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1998
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
424,807 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ilka 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 1998 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 424,807 children born in 1998 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ilka. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ilkas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ilka was born before 1973 — so the typical Ilka is around 52 today.

Median birth year
1973
About 52 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
44.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
45.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
249
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 44.6% of all recorded uses (111).

Is Ilka 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 1970 (19)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
40.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,349
1970

Spellings of Ilka

Ilka is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 18.5% against Ilka's 0.01%.

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 Ilka is used

Across 1910–2025, Ilka was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 568,234 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Illinois1 in —
  2. 2New 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. Ilka has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ilka around the world

Where Ilka 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.

  • France
    2013–2013
    #7,156
    in 2013
  • South Australia
    1951–2012
    #871
    in 2012

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Ilka 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
#3,349
1970
Peak year
1970
19 that year
First recorded
1955
Last recorded
1998
All-time count
249
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Ilka

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

ElkaMilkaAlkaSilkaVielkaNilkaMalkaYamilkaYudelkaBielkaAnielkaEtelkaJamilka

Sibling names for Ilka

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 Ilka

Top names of 1970, Ilka's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1970Girls' names starting with IUncommon Hungarian Girl Names