Aileen
Feminine · “Either "light”
Aileen is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 37,637 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Aileen is the Scottish spelling of a name that crossed from Norman French into Irish and back into English, picking up a new shape at every border. It has been in continuous use in America since record-keeping began, never crowding a classroom, never disappearing either. Said aloud it lands on the second syllable, long and open — ay-LEEN.
How old is the name Aileen?
Aileen was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Aileen alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 26,000 people named Aileen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aileen most popular?
Aileen peaked in 1926, reaching #289 nationally. Today it ranks #799, 510 places below that high. See the whole 1926 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aveline to Aileen
The story of Aileen
The Normans carried Aveline into Ireland, where Irish speakers reshaped it as Eibhlín. From there it came back into English twice over: as Eileen, which is the Irish-influenced spelling, and as Aileen, which is the Scottish one. Both forms traveled to America with Irish and Scottish families and settled in for good, and Aileen has stayed in the records ever since without ever chasing a fashion. In the United States today it turns up most in California, Texas and New York, at home in English- and Spanish-speaking households alike.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "light, bright" through Helen, or an old Norman name of uncertain sense
Aileen is the Scottish form of Irish Eibhlín, and Eibhlín has two credible parents. One line traces it to Norman French Aveline, a diminutive built on a Germanic element whose sense was already lost by the Middle Ages — the same root that gave English Evelyn. The other treats Eibhlín as the Irish rendering of Helen, from Greek helenē, usually read as "torch" or "bright". Reference works split between the two, and the dictionaries that pick one usually note the other.
How the name formed
- Aveline
- Eibhlín
- Eileen
- Aileen
Related forms: Eibhlín · Eileen · Ilene · Aveline · Evelyn · Evelina
Pronouncing Aileen
ay-LEEN
Two syllables with the stress at the end, the most common American reading. Scottish and some Irish speakers say eye-LEEN, and a few families put the weight on the first syllable instead: AY-leen. All three are genuine; expect to say which one you use.
Nicknames for Aileen
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 2008650 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #289reached in 1926
- Change vs 2022
- −16.5%340 in 2025, from 407
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aileen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eibhlín in Irish — same name
- Eileen in English — spelling variant
- Ilene in English — spelling variant
- Aveline in French — related form
- Evelyn in English — related form
- Evelina in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Aileens among us
people named Aileen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,727 born in 2025 was named Aileen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aileen
- #799
- Aileen on the 2025 chart
- #357
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aileen went to 340 girls in 2025, but Ayleen, Aylen and Ailen are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 864, which makes it the 357th most-given girls’ name of the year — 442 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,860 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,727 for Aileen itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Merle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aileen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Merle climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Merle's path sketches the road Aileen is walking now.
Aileen sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aileen is headed
Aileen should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Aileen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aileen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone already knows how to read it, because Eileen sits right beside it in English — the sounds are familiar even where the spelling is not.
- A documented line back through Irish Eibhlín to Norman French, so the name has centuries behind it rather than decades.
- Present in the American records for as long as those records have existed, and still being given now.
- Has close relatives in Irish, French, Italian and English, which gives family in several languages without translation.
- Short forms already in use — Ailie, Lena, Allie — so a nickname does not have to be invented.
- The spelling is the one thing you will repeat. Eileen, Ilene, Aline and Ailene all circle the same sound, and Aileen is not the default guess in the US.
- Pronunciation varies honestly between ay-LEEN and eye-LEEN. Neither is wrong, but a child will correct people, or learn to answer to both.
- Aileen Wuornos made headlines in the early 1990s, and older adults may still make that connection. It has faded steadily with time, and the name kept its place in the records throughout.
- A child with this name is unlikely to meet another one, which is a pleasure for some families and a small loneliness for others.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Aileen
Feminine · #799 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aileens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 26,000 people named Aileen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aileen?
- Aileen is the most-used spelling in US records — 340 of the 864 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ayleen, Aylen and Ailen.
- How popular is the name Aileen in 2025?
- Aileen ranks #799 among US girl names in 2025, with 340 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aileen?
- About 1 in every 4,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Aileen — 340 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aileen with classmates?
- Aileen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aileen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Karla#799 · Kayleigh#799 · Dalia#799 · Janelle#799 · Kaitlyn#799 · Elowen#797 · Bellamy#797 · Rayna#795
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aileen? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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