Eileen
Feminine · “Not settled”
Eileen is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 189,614 girls against 406 boys since 1880.
Eileen is the English spelling of Irish Eibhlín, a name the Norman French brought to Ireland and Irish speakers made entirely their own. It sits in the mouth as two clean syllables with the stress falling on the long second one, the shape that carried the old Irish song "Eibhlín a Rúin" — sung in English as "Eileen Aroon" — across centuries and eventually across the Atlantic. It has been on American record-keeping since the earliest years such records exist.
How old is the name Eileen?
Eileen first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Eileen alive today was born around 1947, making them about 78 years old. About 109,000 people named Eileen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eileen most popular?
Eileen peaked in 1943, reaching #68 nationally. Today it ranks #654, 586 places below that high. See the whole 1943 chart.
Eileen appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Aveline (Norman French) to Eileen
The story of Eileen
The Normans carried Aveline into Ireland after the twelfth century, and Irish speakers reshaped it as Eibhlín — a name that then belonged to Ireland far more than to France. It appears in one of the great works of Irish-language poetry: the eighteenth-century lament for Art Ó Laoghaire, composed by his widow Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill. Irish emigration brought the name to English-speaking countries in the anglicized spelling Eileen, which is why it arrives in American records looking Irish rather than Norman. Alongside it, the same Aveline root produced Evelyn in England, so the two are cousins that no longer sound related.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not settled — most often glossed as "shining" by association with Helen
Two readings compete. By descent, Eileen anglicizes Irish Eibhlín, which came from Norman French Aveline, a name whose own Germanic root element has no agreed translation — so strictly, the meaning is unrecovered. In practice, Irish and English usage long treated Eibhlín/Eileen as the Irish counterpart of Helen, and the sense "shining, bright" attached to it that way. Both are honest answers; neither is invention.
How the name formed
- AvelineNorman French
- EibhlínIrish
- Eileen
Related forms: Eibhlín · Aileen · Eilene · Evelyn · Aveline · Eilidh
Pronouncing Eileen
eye-LEEN
Stress on the second syllable is standard in the US; some families say EYE-leen with the weight up front. The Irish spelling Eibhlín is pronounced differently again, closer to ev-LEEN or eye-LEEN depending on region.
Nicknames for Eileen
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
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 19474,251 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #68reached in 1943
- Change vs 2022
- −8.2%437 in 2025, from 476
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.
Eileen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eibhlín in Irish — same name
- Aileen in English — spelling variant
- Eilene in English — spelling variant
- Evelyn in English — related form
- Aveline in French — related form
- Eilidh in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Eileens among us
people named Eileen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,678 born in 2025 was named Eileen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Leona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Eileen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leona climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leona's path sketches the road Eileen is walking now.
Eileen 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 Eileen is headed
Eileen should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Eileen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Eileen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, two syllables, and phonetically transparent once heard — no one needs it repeated twice.
- An unbroken presence in American records from the earliest years they were kept, so it has never had to be reintroduced.
- Belongs to a real family of names — Eibhlín, Aileen, Evelyn, Aveline — which gives it depth and ready alternatives.
- A documented place in Irish-language literature, through the eighteenth-century lament of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill.
- Dexys Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen" is a fixture of oldies radio and wedding playlists, and plenty of people will sing the line on hearing the name. Worth knowing rather than worth fearing — it has kept the name audible for decades.
- The spelling competes with Aileen, Eilene, Ilene and Aline, so expect to spell it aloud fairly often.
- Living bearers skew strongly toward older generations, which means the name currently reads as a grandmother's name or a family name rather than a nursery one — attractive to some parents, a hurdle for others.
- If the Irish spelling Eibhlín appeals, be ready to teach its pronunciation everywhere outside Ireland.
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What they receive
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Eileen
Feminine · #654 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eileens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 109,000 people named Eileen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Eileen in 2025?
- Eileen ranks #654 among US girl names in 2025, with 437 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Eileen?
- About 1 in every 3,678 US girls born in 2025 was named Eileen — 437 in all.
- Will my child share the name Eileen with classmates?
- Eileen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Eileen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Gloria#654 · Miranda#654 · Rosa#652 · Alara#652 · Irene#651 · Hana#657 · Aleena#657 · Andie#650
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eileen? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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