Odile
Feminine · “wealth”
Odile is a French name with a long history, and for a great many people it arrives first as a role: the black swan in the most performed ballet in the world, danced by the same woman who plays the white one.
How old is the name Odile?
Odile first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Odile alive today was born around 1915, making them about 110 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Odile are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Odile most popular?
Odile peaked in 1898, reaching #719 nationally. See the whole 1898 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Odilia to Odile
The story of Odile
In Swan Lake the prince is deceived at the ball by a woman who looks exactly like the swan he has fallen in love with. She is Odile, and she is traditionally danced by the same ballerina who dances Odette, which turns the role into one of the hardest assignments in classical ballet: two characters, two vocabularies of movement, one body, one evening. The black swan's variation includes a famous sequence of thirty-two consecutive turns on one spot, which was not in the original choreography and is now effectively compulsory, because audiences count them. The doubling was not in the first production either. It became standard because a performer proved it could be done, and then nobody could go back.
Meaning
wealth
The name is the feminine of a Germanic name built on the element meaning wealth or inheritance, the same one in Otto and Odo. The reading is settled and has not been disputed.
How the name formed
- Odilia
- Odile
Related forms: Odilia · Ottilia
Pronouncing Odile
oh-DEEL
Two syllables with the weight on the second and a silent final e. English readers regularly try to sound that e and produce a third syllable.
Nicknames for Odile
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
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 191527 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #719reached in 1898
- Change vs 1992
- +20.0%6 in 2018, from 5
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.
Odile in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Odilia in German — same name
- Ottilia in Italian — related form
Odiles among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Odile are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Odile 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 meaning is settled and documented in one of Europe's best-recorded name traditions.
- It is short, elegant on paper, and has no difficult consonant in it.
- It is thoroughly ordinary in France and genuinely rare in the United States.
- The final e will be pronounced by many American readers, so the correction becomes routine.
- The ballet association is strong and the character is the villain, which some families mind and others enjoy.
- It will be written Odell, Odelle and Odilia by people working from sound alone.
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Odile
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Odiles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Odile are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Odile in 2025?
- Odile is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Odile with classmates?
- Odile will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More O names
The most-given names starting with O, all years combined.
Olivia#1 · Opal#423 · Olive#197 · Olga#3167 · Ollie#2276 · Ora#3712 · Ola#7885 · Ophelia#264
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Odile? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Odile and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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