Ethel is from the Old English æðele (noble) — a short form of Æthelthryth, Etheldreda, and other Anglo-Saxon names beginning with this element. A top-10 US baby name from 1894 to 1907, peaking at #6 in 1900. Ethel Merman (1908-1984) — born Ethel Zimmermann — *American singer-actress; the "First Lady of the Broadway Musical" originated the lead roles in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam, Gypsy. Ethel Waters (1896-1977) — American singer; first Black woman nominated for a Best Actress Oscar (Pinky*, 1949). Ethel Kennedy (1928-2024) — widow of Robert F. Kennedy; mother of 11; founder of the RFK Center for Human Rights. Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) — "First Lady of the American Theatre."
Subject of Robert Massie's Bobby and Ethel (1995).
Ethel does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Ethel reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.