How rare is the name Earl?

92,567 people in the United States have the first name Earl, about 1 in 3,263. It ranks #576 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

EARL

#576

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
92,567
About
1 in 3,263
This common or more
61.1%
Who bears it

Of the 92,567 people named Earl, 67.8% reported their origin as White, 24.9% as Black and 2.8% as two or more races. Virtually all are male (99.7%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Earl peaked in 1921, when 6,797 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1921
Births that year
6,797
In 2025*
63 ▼99%
Recorded as
almost entirely male

At least 291,421 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Earl by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1920s, when it ranked #71. The largest share of babies named Earl, 34.7%, were born between 1901 and 1927, the Greatest Generation's birth years.

1880s#1054,843
1890s#908,389
1900s#1049,387
1910s#7740,557
1920s#7164,153
1930s#9245,014
1940s#15039,366
1950s#23632,832
1960s#33620,524
1970s#43311,533
1980s#6257,466
1990s#1,1183,908
2000s#2,1201,906
2010s#3,3291,104
2020s#4,357439
Before 19014.9%
Greatest Generation 1901–2734.7%
Silent Generation 1928–4527.6%
Baby boom 1946–6420.7%
Generation X 1965–807.3%
Millennials 1981–963.3%
Generation Z 1997–121.1%
2013 and later0.4%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Earl is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Earl has been most common in West Virginia (2.3×), Kentucky (2.2×), and Louisiana (1.9×), and least common in Nevada (0.2×).

264,202 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Earl

#574 Jerome · 92,865#575 June · 92,671#577 Brandy · 92,449#578 Geraldine · 92,416

Spelled almost the same

3 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Earl, most common first.

#5,063 Earle · 3,481#11,199 Early · 1,159#22,430 Earla · 444

Also a last name

As a last name, Earl ranks #2,312 of 156,621, with 15,377 people. See Earl as a last name

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