Eleanor
The girl's name Eleanor has been in the national records since 1880, with 337,323 births to its name. In 2025 it ranked 12th. About 143,000 Eleanors are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 11.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Eleanor boys named Eleanor
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 337,323
- Estimated living today
- 143,000
- Median age today
- 11
- Peak year
- 1920
- Best rank
- 25th
- Rank in 2025
- 12th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 336,678 / 645
How old the living Eleanors are
born that year still alive today
Of the 337,323 babies given the name since 1880, about 143,000 are alive — 42 in every hundred. Roughly 84,000 of them are children and 35,000 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2014 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
The first known bearer was Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204), oc-pro Aliénor, perhaps from Latin alia (“other”) and her mother's name Aenor, its meaning thereby said to be “the other Aenor”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Eleanors
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)American diplomat and activist, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945
- Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124–1204)Queen consort of France; Queen consort of England; suo jure Duchess of Aquitaine; patroness
- Eleanor Parker (1922–2013)American actress
- Eleanor of Castile (1241–1290)Infanta of Castile and queen consort of England
- Eleanor of Provence (1222–1291)Queen of England
- Eleanor H. Porter (1868–1920)American novelist
- Eleanor of Austria (1498–1558)Queen consort of Portugal and France
- Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress (1434–1467)consort of Frederick III
People named Eleanor with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Eleanor is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Eleanor is most concentrated in Massachusetts (2.4×), Vermont (2.1×), Maine (2.0×), Pennsylvania (1.9×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1920
The most popular girls’ names the year Eleanor peaked:
Eleanor elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales girls | Eleanor | 41,352 | 20th |
| France girls | Eleanor +3 spellings | 3,080 | 514th |
| Ireland girls | Eleanor | 2,762 | 93rd |
| Scotland girls | Eleanor | 1,831 | 120th |
| Belgium girls | Eleanor +2 spellings | 596 | 306th |
| New Zealand girls | Eleanor | 517 | 50th |
| Switzerland girls | Eleanor | 273 | 265th |
| Northern Ireland girls | Eleanor | 229 | 139th |
| Poland girls | Eleanor | 29 birth registrations | 516th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Eleanor: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German girls | Switzerland | Eleanor | 166 | 0.013% | 286th |
| French girls | Switzerland | Eleanor | 102 | 0.023% | 172nd |
| Italian girls | Switzerland | Eleanor | 5 | 0.008% | 97th |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Eleanor is most concentrated in Vaud, where 0.03% of children were given it – 50 of them.
Eleanor: rank by region
In 2025, Eleanor was given 5 times or more in 3 regions of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Eleanor | 350 | 15 |
| Wallonia | Eleanor | 365 | 7 |
| Wallonia | Eléanor | 452 | 5 |
In 2016, Eleanor was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Italy.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste | Eleanor | 10 | 1 |
In 2025, Eleanor was given 2 times or more in 1 region of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Śląskie | Eleanor | 255 | 2 |
In 2025, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Eleanor appears in the lists for Province of Flemish Brabant (164th).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Italy after 10 names, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Eleanor by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 33 | 276th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Eleanor among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland girls | Eleanor | 124 | 462 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Related names
Eleanor against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.