How popular is the baby name Ellsworth in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Ellsworth and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Ellsworth.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Ellsworth

Number of Babies Named Ellsworth

Born in the U.S. Since 1880

Posts that Mention the Name Ellsworth

Civil War Baby Names – Lincoln, Grant, Elmer

Elmer E Ellsworth
Elmer E. Ellsworth
Today is not just the anniversary of the first manned space flight. It’s also the anniversary of the start of the Civil War. (They were exactly 100 years apart, in fact.)

I’ve seen military names catch on as baby names during times of war, so I was curious to know if this had happened during the Civil War. The problem? The war ended in 1865, so all that easy-to-access SSA data, which only dates back to 1880, wouldn’t be of any help.

But census data would work. And economist Douglas Galbi has made things easy for me: he’s used 19th-century census data to come up with lists of popular given names, sorted by decade of birth. Talk about convenient.

Using only data from the 1880 census, I looked up the following Civil War-related names:

  • Abraham & Lincoln – Abraham Lincoln was the leader of the Union
  • Jefferson & Davis – Jefferson Davis was the leader of the Confederacy
  • Ulysses & Grant – Ulysses S Grant commanded the Union Army at the end of the war
  • Robert & Lee – Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate Army at the end of the war
  • William & Sherman – William T. Sherman was a Union general
  • Elmer & Ellsworth – Elmer E. Ellsworth was an early Union casualty

Here’s what I found. An x indicates “fewer than ten.” Also, keep in mind that the number of births overall increased significantly from decade to decade — 20,862 the first decade, 36,188 the second, 48,000 the third and 64,041 the fourth.

Name 1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80
Abraham:
Lincoln:		 78
x		 89
11		 105
35		 83
x
Jefferson:
Davis:		 24
10		 26
12		 74
25		 38
x
Ulysses:
Grant:		 x
x		 x
x		 15
94		 10
43
Robert:
Lee:		 349
15		 602
33		 887
109		 1,268
104
William:
Sherman:		 1,732
x		 3,114
x		 4,704
70		 5,693
30
Elmer:
Ellsworth:		 x
x		 24
x		 232
21		 161
x

So it seems as though the Civil War did indeed give certain names a boost.

I was most surprised by Elmer. Elmer E. Ellsworth, though not well-known nowadays, captured the nation’s attention in early days of the war. He was killed in mid-1861 while trying to confiscate a Confederate flag. Here’s how the NYT ended Ellsworth’s obituary:

He has been assassinated! His murder was fearfully and speedily revenged. He has lived a brief but an eventful, a public and an honorable life. His memory will be revered, his name respected, and long after the rebellion shall have become a matter of history, his death will be regarded as a martyrdom, and his name will be enrolled upon the list of our country’s patriots.

According to Wikipedia, Ellsworth’s death inspired thousands of men to enlist. His many namesakes include U.S. Commissioner of Education Elmer Ellsworth Brown (1861-1934), artist Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey (1862-1964), Minnesota legislator Elmer Ellsworth Adams (1861-1950), and pro baseball player Elmer Ellsworth “Mike” Smith (1868-1945).

Source: “Obituary; Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth.” New York Times 25 May 1861.

*

UPDATE, 6/15/15: Turns out that the data I used for this post isn’t so reliable after all. (See the comments here for specifics.)

So here are some new numbers — basically, search “hits” for these names on the 1880 Census (via FamilySearch) grouped by birth year. These aren’t perfect either, but I think they’re an improvement.

Let’s go backwards…

Elmer & Ellsworth:

1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80
Elmer:
Ellsworth:		 767
55		 2,686
128		 21,464
2,516		 16,848
878

And here are the year-by-year “hits” on Elmer specifically:

  • 1856: 236 babies named Elmer
  • 1857: 259 babies named Elmer
  • 1858: 325 babies named Elmer
  • 1859: 388 babies named Elmer
  • 1860: 605 babies named Elmer
  • 1861: 2,533 babies named Elmer
  • 1862: 3,964 babies named Elmer
  • 1863: 2,665 babies named Elmer
  • 1864: 2,097 babies named Elmer
  • 1865: 1,617 babies named Elmer

William & Sherman:

1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80
William:
Sherman:		 203,072
305		 313,786
523		 413,820
7,864		 451,502
3,151

Robert & Lee:

1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80
Robert:
Lee:		 38,445
3,423		 57,213
6,171		 83,640
17,930		 109,409
25,661

Ulysses & Grant:

1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80
Ulysses:
Grant:		 49
209		 63
324		 2,003
11,819		 811
5,309

Jefferson & Davis:

1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80
Jefferson:
Davis:		 2,020
718		 3,109
1,094		 7,075
2,356		 3,270
1,713

Abraham & Lincoln:

1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80
Abraham:
Lincoln:		 4,411
74		 5,071
663		 7,951
4,292		 5,482
620

If anyone has any tips on using the U.S. census to get relatively accurate data on first names (only), I’m all ears!