Ilse

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled 일서 in KR South Korea.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ilse is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese given name143K records spelled Ilse12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Mexico, United States, Chile

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian

  Also written Ïlsë, Ilsë, Ilsê, Ïlse, Ílse

• Finnish given name5.1K records spelled Ilse3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, Netherlands, United States

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Ilše

• French given name4.5K records spelled Ilse3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Ilsé

• Swahili given name720 records spelled Ilse3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in South Africa, United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho

  Also written Ilsé

44 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ilse is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, Toponymic surname from the river/place Ilse.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

• In German, a diminutive of the female given name Elisabeth, popular in the 1920s and 1930s

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In German, Toponymischer Familienname, wohl Wohnstättenname; nach der Ilse (Fluss/Ortsname). 428 Belege.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

• In Swedish, Ilse är ursprungligen en tysk smekform till → Elisabeth. Det har blivit populärt i Sverige det senaste årtiondet. I den finlandssvenska almanackan 14 oktober.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In French, Dérivé d’Élisabeth, d’origine hébraïque (Elisheba) ; « Dieu est plénitude ».

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

CL SRCEI — Nombres más comunes (guaguas, 1920–2021) — 98 years between 1920–2020. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ilse Bingb. 1899DEGerman photographer (1899-1998)
• Ilse Hessb. 1900DEGerman author (1900-1995)
• Ilse Kochb. 1906DEGerman war criminal, wife of camp commandant Karl-Otto Koch (1906–1967)
• Ilse Braunb. 1909DEsister of Eva Braun (1909-1979)
• Ilse Stöbeb. 1911DEGerman journalist and anti-Nazi resistance fighter (1911-1942)
• Ilse Steppatb. 1917DEGerman actress (1917–1969)
• Ilse Aichingerb. 1921ATAustrian writer (1921–2016)
• Katja Ebsteinb. 1945DEnot in their usual nameGerman singer
• Ilse DeLangeb. 1977NLDutch country and pop singer
• Ilse Salasb. 1981MXMexican actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 531 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ilse?

We estimate roughly 33 thousand people bear Ilse (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Ilse have the most bearers?

Ilse is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled ilse.

Where is Ilse most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Ilse is densest in the Netherlands — about 1 in 944 people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.

How common is Ilse compared with other names?

In Germany, Ilse is the 311th most common given name of 154,506 given names recorded there.

Is Ilse a male or female name?

Ilse is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Ilse mean?

Recorded meaning: Toponymic surname from a river/place name; variant van Ilsen.