Earl
Earl is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 68 births. Its best rank was 20th, in 1894.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 680.00% of boys
- Peak year
- 19216,754 births
- Best rank
- #20in 1894
- Since 1880
- 291,355people given the name
The story in the numbers
289,108 boys have been named Earl in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1921, with 6,754 births — 0.61% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 68 births in 2024, against 6,754 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1933, and the 1920s alone account for 22%. It has spent 127 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 75 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,247 girls have also been given it, 0.77% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Earl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 4,830 | |
| 1890s | 8,297 | |
| 1900s | 9,251 | |
| 1910s | 40,273 | |
| 1920s | 63,602 | |
| 1930s | 44,613 | |
| 1940s | 39,127 | |
| 1950s | 32,652 | |
| 1960s | 20,369 | |
| 1970s | 11,404 | |
| 1980s | 7,398 | |
| 1990s | 3,908 | |
| 2000s | 1,906 | |
| 2010s | 1,102 | |
| 2020s | 376 |
In 1921, its biggest year
Earl was the 31st most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1921 were John, Robert, William, James and Charles. See all of 1921.
Names that rose and fell with Earl
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Floydpeak 1926
- Vernepeak 1919
- Vernpeak 1920
- Earnestpeak 1926
- Clydepeak 1920
- Arliepeak 1921
- Herbertpeak 1928
- Herschelpeak 1921
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.