Humanverse

Ether

About 1,285 American babies have been named Ether since 1883, most of them around 1921. It has not appeared in the national data since 2018. About 190 Ethers are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 80.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

girls named Ether boys named Ether

By the numbers

Total US births
1,285
Estimated living today
190
Median age today
80
Peak year
1921
Best rank
1,092nd
Rank in 2025
unranked
First recorded
1883
Girls / boys
1,214 / 71

How old the living Ethers are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 1,285 babies given the name since 1883, about 190 are alive — 15 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1945 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Where Ether is most common

Relative to how many babies each state records, Ether is most concentrated in Mississippi (48.3×), Alabama (6.5×), Georgia (3.6×), Louisiana (3.1×).

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 1921

The most popular girls’ names the year Ether peaked:

All the names of 1921

Related names

Ether against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Ether with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.