Evelyn

293,621 people in America carry this name — ranked #176 of 923.

Carried mostly by the Greatest Generation.

Say it EH vuh luhn

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

EH1 V AH0 L AH0 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 293,621 2020 Census
  • Rank #176 Common
  • Per 100,000 97.2 about 1 in 1,129 people
  • As a surname 1,401 ranked #19,328 the other way round

What Evelyn means and where it comes from

Latin in origin, reading literally as “hazel nut”.

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.

How often Evelyn has been given

595,215 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1921, with 14,308 of them.

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

Most people carrying it were born in the 1920s. It has been given more often of late.

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 Evelyn

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Evelyn Nancy — runs together
  • Evelyn Nicole — runs together
  • Evelyn Emma — 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.

On the way up

Evelyn is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Evelyn a boy's or a girl's name?

0.2% men
293,177 women

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

Where the name Evelyn is most common in the US

In Alaska the name is given 1.4 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Alaska ×1.4
  • Idaho ×1.4
  • Nevada ×1.4
  • Colorado ×1.3
  • Arizona ×1.3

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

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.

Try it First-Year Costs

Open First-Year Costs 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 Latin origin