Eleanor
Feminine
Eleanor is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 336,678 girls against 645 boys since 1880. See Eleanor as a boy name
When Edward the First's wife died in Nottinghamshire in 1290, her body was carried to Westminster over twelve days, and he had a stone cross built at every place it rested overnight. Three survive. The last stop was a hamlet called Charing, which is why London has a Charing Cross.
How old is the name Eleanor?
Eleanor was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Eleanor alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 147,000 people named Eleanor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eleanor most popular?
Eleanor peaked in 2025, reaching #12 nationally. Today it ranks #12, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Alienor to Eleanor
The story of Eleanor
The name came to England with a specific woman. Eleanor of Aquitaine inherited the largest duchy in France at fifteen, married the king of France, went on crusade with him, had the marriage annulled, married the man who became king of England eight weeks later, and had eight children including two kings. Her husband imprisoned her for sixteen years; she outlived him, ruled England as regent for her son, and was still crossing the Pyrenees on political business in her late seventies. She died at about eighty-two. The name was hers before it was anyone else's in England, and the crosses two centuries later belong to a different Eleanor, a Castilian one, whose husband apparently could not stop building them.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Eleanor comes from Provencal Alienor and its origin has never been established. The reading light, from a Greek word, does not work phonetically and is a later attachment. A derivation from an older Germanic name has been proposed and not demonstrated. One of the most used names in Europe has no known meaning.
Cultural footprint
Eleanor Roosevelt (b. 1884) — Longest-serving First Lady, drove the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Eleanor of Aquitaine (b. 1124) — Medieval queen of both France and England
Eleanor H. Porter (b. 1868) — Wrote Pollyanna
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Alienor
- Eleanor
Related forms: Eleonore · Leonor · Eleonora · Eleonore · Eleonora
Pronouncing Eleanor
EL-uh-nor
Three syllables, stress on the first, with the middle reduced almost to nothing. British speakers often give it three full syllables. Spanish Leonor has two and puts the weight at the end.
Nicknames for Eleanor
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
- 19248,193 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #12reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +10.4%7,649 in 2025, from 6,927
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.
Eleanor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eleonore in French — same name
- Leonor in Spanish — same name
- Eleonora in Italian — same name
- Eleonore in German — same name
- Eleonora in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Eleanors among us
people named Eleanor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 210 born in 2025 was named Eleanor
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 Christina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Eleanor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christina climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christina's path sketches the road Eleanor is walking now.
Eleanor has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Eleanor is headed
Eleanor 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.
Eleanor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Eleanor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four short forms of genuinely different registers, three of which are full names elsewhere.
- Recognized without translation in French, Spanish, Italian, German and Polish.
- Documented continuous use for nine hundred years, with named bearers in every century.
- It has never gone out of use and has never had a single peak decade, which very few names manage.
- It has no established meaning, which matters if the meaning is why you chose it.
- Elinor, Eleanore and Elanor are all in use, so the spelling will occasionally be given.
- It is climbing hard at the moment, so an Eleanor will not be the only one for long.
- The very few boys given this spelling will be read as girls on paper.
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What they receive
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Eleanor
Feminine · #12 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eleanors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 147,000 people named Eleanor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Eleanor in 2025?
- Eleanor ranks #12 among US girl names in 2025, with 7,649 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Eleanor?
- About 1 in every 210 US girls born in 2025 was named Eleanor — 7,649 in all.
- Will my child share the name Eleanor with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 8 classrooms will have a child named Eleanor.
Ranked beside Eleanor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ava#11 · Violet#13 · Eliana#10 · Ailany#14 · Aurora#15 · Sofia#9 · Evelyn#8 · Harper#16
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eleanor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Eleanor and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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