Eileen

119,999 people in America carry this name — ranked #468 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it y LEEN

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

AY0 L IY1 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 119,999 2020 Census
  • Rank #468 Common
  • Per 100,000 39.7 about 1 in 2,762 people
  • As a surname No not above the reporting threshold

The meaning and origin of Eileen

Greek in origin, reading literally as “light”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Eileen through the years

187,700 babies were given this name since 1882. The busiest year was 1947, with 4,267 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50s 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1950s.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Eileen

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Eileen Elizabeth — same opening
  • Eileen Nancy — runs together
  • Eileen Emily — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

A name from before the war

The year most children were called Eileen was 1947. Names of that age tend to come back once their owners are grandparents.

Boys or girls: who is called Eileen?

0.1% men
119,909 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Same syllables and stress as Eileen

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the second

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Who has this name today

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 83.0%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 2.3%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 9.1%
  • Two or more races — 1.2%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 4.0%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

The same name abroad

  • Leno Esth
  • Lena Alb.|Lett
  • Jela Serv
  • Nelly English
  • Ljena Alb
  • Lenka Slov
  • Lenia Alb
  • Ilona Hungarian
  • Helen Scottish
  • Ellin Welsh
  • Ellen English
  • Elena Italian
  • Elene
  • Leonor Spanish

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Try it Full-Name Estimator

Add a surname and see how many Americans carry the two together.

Open Full-Name Estimator on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin