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Ilsa

#5,621 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Ilse

Ilsa has been given to 917 babies in the U.S. since 1943. In 2025 it ranked #5,621 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2011, with 34 recorded.

Babies named Ilsa, 2025

1 in 151,000

Ilsa over time, 1880–2025

Girls
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ilsa: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Ilse

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ilsa means

Ilsa is a variant of Ilse.

Origin, language, and formation

Ilsa is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ilse.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 917 girls were recorded with the name Ilsa between 1943 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 34 in 2011; its best national rank was #2,686 in 1944.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,737 in 2020 to #5,621 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #11,254 in 2015 to #5,621 in 2025.

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 Ilsa?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 151,000
22 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 73,100
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,621
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
104,451 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ilsa 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 2025 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 104,451 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ilsa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ilsas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ilsa was born before 2001 — so the typical Ilsa is around 24 today.

Median birth year
2001
About 24 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
22.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
51.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
882
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 22.4% of all recorded uses (205).

Is Ilsa 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
+4,209
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,116
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+5,633
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.44×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
64.7%
Peak was 2011 (34)
Years since peak
14
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,686
1944

Spellings of Ilsa

Ilsa is not the most common spelling — Lisa is, with 30.7% against Ilsa's 0.03%.

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 Ilsa is used

Across 1910–2025, Ilsa was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 2,851,917 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 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. Ilsa has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ilsa around the world

Where Ilsa 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.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #3,705
    in 2025
  • France
    2016–2016
    #7,053
    in 2016
  • Canada
    2015–2023
    #3,391
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1970–2010
    #521
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Ilsa by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,621
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,116
Best rank ever
#2,686
1944
Peak year
2011
34 that year
First recorded
1943
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
917
Count in 2025
22

Names similar to Ilsa

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

IlseNilsaDelsaTulsaAilsaChelsaElsaKelsaIlsyCelsaTelsaNelsaIlsiEllsaAlsaMelsaTullsaCharlsa

Sibling names for Ilsa

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 Ilsa

Top names of 2011, Ilsa's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1944Girls' names starting with I