Eboney
Feminine · “ebony”
Eboney adds a letter to the name of a wood. That wood has a physical property almost no other timber has, and the property is the reason anybody bothered to carry it across oceans.
How old is the name Eboney?
Eboney first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Eboney alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 700 people named Eboney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eboney most popular?
Eboney peaked in 1980, reaching #2189 nationally. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Eboney
Most wood floats. Ebony does not: it is dense enough to sink, which is a useful field test and also a reasonable summary of why it was traded. A timber that heavy is hard, takes a polish like stone, and holds a fine edge in carving, which made it worth shipping from Africa, India and Sri Lanka to workshops thousands of miles away. Egyptian tombs contain it. Piano keys, chess pieces, knife handles and the fingerboards of stringed instruments are still made of it, and the trees grow slowly enough that several species are now protected and the trade is restricted.
Meaning
ebony, the dark hardwood
The word came into English through Latin and Greek from an Egyptian term for the tree, and the reading is settled. Only the added letter in this spelling is unaccounted for.
Pronouncing Eboney
EB-uh-nee
Three syllables with the stress in front, said exactly like the word. The added letter is not audible.
Nicknames for Eboney
Moderate
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 198046 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2189reached in 1980
- Change vs 2006
- +25.0%10 in 2007, from 8
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.
Eboneys among us
people named Eboney are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Eboney sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The word is in everybody's vocabulary, so the name is never mysterious.
- The meaning is settled and easy to explain to a child.
- It is read correctly at first sight even by people who have not seen this spelling.
- Ebony is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected to it regularly.
- The added letter cannot be heard, so the spelling has to be given aloud every time.
- It belongs audibly to one stretch of American naming, which places it in time for some listeners.
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Eboney
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Eboneys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Eboney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Eboney in 2025?
- Eboney is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Eboney with classmates?
- Eboney will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eboney? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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