Ennis
Masculine · “Irish inis”
Ennis is given to both — 3,204 boys and 320 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Inis is the Irish word for island, and it is one of the commonest elements in Irish place names: Inishmore, Inisheer, Ennistymon, Enniskillen. Ennis, the county town of Clare, is simply the island, named for the ground between two branches of the river Fergus.
How old is the name Ennis?
Ennis was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ennis alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 1,400 people named Ennis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ennis most popular?
Ennis peaked in 1900, reaching #578 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 8,332 places below that high. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From inis to Ennis
The story of Ennis
English clerks writing Irish place names down did not transcribe the Irish spelling; they wrote what they heard, in English spelling conventions. That is why Ennis and not Inis, Enniskillen and not Inis Ceithleann, Athlone and not Baile Atha Luain. The results preserve the pronunciation of the seventeenth century better than the modern Irish orthography does, because Irish spelling is conservative and shows sounds that have since changed. So the English forms are, in a narrow sense, better phonetic records, which is an odd thing to be able to say about a colonial transcription. Ennis also shows the ordinary Irish-name route into American given names: place to surname to given name, arriving with emigration and peaking in 1900 alongside a whole cohort of Irish surnames used as first names.
Meaning
Irish inis, island
Ennis is the anglicization of Irish Inis, an island or a river meadow enclosed by water, and is the name of the county town of Clare. The surname derives from the town. A separate Irish surname, Mac Aonghusa, was also anglicized as Ennis in places, which means some bearers descend from Angus rather than from the town. The American peak of the given name is 1900.
How the name formed
- inis
- Ennis
Related forms: Inis · Enis
Pronouncing Ennis
EN-iss
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is said the same in Irish and English, which is unusual for an Irish name.
Nicknames for Ennis
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 191853 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #578reached in 1900
- Change vs 2022
- −27.3%8 in 2025, from 11
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.
Ennis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Inis in Irish — same name
- Enis in English — spelling variant
Enniss among us
people named Ennis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Ennis
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ennis 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
Ennis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ennis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling and the pronunciation agree completely.
- It follows the Irish surname-as-first-name pattern.
- Five letters and two clear syllables.
- It is a well-known Irish town and will be recognized as one.
- Two separate Irish sources produced the same English spelling.
- The 1900 peak makes it a turn-of-the-century name.
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Ennis
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Enniss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Ennis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ennis in 2025?
- Ennis ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ennis?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Ennis — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ennis with classmates?
- Ennis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ennis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ennis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ennis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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