Why There Is Real Power in Being an 'Ethel'

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If you’re reading this, you’re an Ethel — one of the hundreds of thousands of readers of AARP’s The Ethel newsletter for vibrant women of a certain age.

Hang onto that moniker, ladies. Wear it with pride.

We owe it to our original Ethel: Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, who founded AARP in 1958 at the age of 73. She was as pointed in her purpose as she was in her cat-eye glasses.

Andrus never married. She was too busy becoming the first woman high school principal in California, fighting for teachers’ pensions and redefining “dynamic maturity.” She fought for social causes befitting her name, which means “noble.”

Andrus' parents — George and Lucretia — were clearly smart and serious people, keen on no-nonsense names. They named Ethel’s older sister “Maud.”

Records confirm both sisters were uncompromisin', enterprisin' and anything but tranquilizin' — right on, Ethel and Maud! (We've always loved the theme song of the ‘70s sitcom Maude.)

The name “Maud” or “Maude” was among the top 25 names for girls when Maud was born in 1878. Like Ethel, Maud became an educator. In 1911, The Los Angeles Times noted her innovative idea: hiring “official storytellers” to help books come alive for students.

When our founder was born in 1884, the name Ethel ranked number 18 on the popularity chart and was climbing. It hit its zenith in 1896, when Ethel ranked number six behind Biblical classics like Mary, Margaret and Ruth.

Alas, the name Ethel has been going downhill ever since. Last year, just 27 Ethels were born in the United States. The average American woman named Ethel is 74.68 years old.

Meanwhile, America welcomed 14,718 babies named Olivia and 13,485 named Emma, a perennial old-fashioned favorite.

Writer Grace Royal explains the Era of Ethel in a Nameberry post: “At the turn of the last century, when Ethel Barrymore was the belle of Broadway, her first name was wildly popular, a Top 10 name for 16 years and in the Top 100 until 1939. Other well-known bearers have been musical stars Ethel Merman and Ethel Waters. Not so distinguished: Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy. Ethel fell away from such Old English appellations as Ethelberta, Ethelreda and Ethelinda.”

Ethelberta? Berta means “bright” — so Ethelberta would be one dynamic granny, if you could find one.

What’s out or in depends on popular culture, of course.

If you’re a Brandy, you’re a fine girl … and you probably were born in 1973 or later. The hit song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” came out in 1972. That year, the name was not on the top 100 list, but it was at 80 and rising by 1973. It peaked in 1978 as the 37th most popular name for girls.

Long before pop songs, literature inspired women’s names. Ethel Barrymore — who happens to be Drew Barrymore's great-aunt — was named for the character Ethel Newcome in the novel The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray, published in 1855.

Andrus’ name was probably influenced by literature, too. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother’s parents were born in England. Perhaps her middle name, “Percy,” was a nod to British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Another perpetually popular literary name is “Emma,” made famous by Jane Austen’s 1815 novel.

Emma topped the baby-girl name charts in America from 2014 to 2018, when Olivia bumped it to number two. The name is so enduring and endearing, it was number three (after Mary and Anna) in 1880, the first year the Social Security Administration kept precise records.

Somewhere in the mid-20th century, shortly before Ethel Mertz showed up as Lucy Ricardo’s sidekick on I Love Lucy, the name Ethel morphed from glamorous to frumpy.

Lucille Ball said she named Vivian Vance’s character after her friend, Broadway star Ethel Merman. Coincidentally, Vance was Merman’s understudy in Anything Goes, which opened on Broadway in 1934.

After I Love Lucy ended in 1956, Vance tried to shake what she called “the Ethel image.”

And yet, TV’s Ethels remain sassy and sarcastic.

Consider Ethel Beavers, the crotchety court stenographer on Parks and Recreation. Played by Helen Slayton-Hughes, this Ethel steals every scene. Check out the “Best of Ethel Beavers” on YouTube. You’ll thank me.

Today, the rarity of the name Ethel could usher in a comeback, notes Grace Royal of Nameberry, which calls itself “the world's largest baby naming site.” What’s old often becomes new again. Clara and Mabel are two old-fashioned names that jumped in popularity in 2024, as did Ethel Mertz’s real-life name: Vivian.

Many of today’s parents prize originality and cuteness over tradition and nobility. Could a newborn Ethel be called Ettie? Or Effie? Or even Elle?

Andrus believed that the generations must speak to each other. “We who are retired have much to share with young people — where else will they know the kaleidoscope of change?” she once said.

Yep, the Emmas have something to learn from the Ethels.

Andrus had her own lightbulb moment when she retired in 1944 after decades as a Los Angeles high school principal to care for her aging mother, Lucretia — a name even rarer than Ethel.

“She was my inspiration to do something about being retired,” Andrus told The Los Angeles Times in 1962, in a story about a home she built for retired teachers, Grey Gables, in Ojai, California. She built it after meeting a retired teacher who lived in a chicken coop. Her efforts to help retired teachers eventually led to AARP.

Lucretia Andrus had told her daughter, “You thought your work was done when you gave up youngsters, but it’s only beginning because it’s now with older persons.”

Those older persons include us, The Ethels, forever dynamic, forward-thinking and fabulous, as every Ethel should be.

 What's YOUR favorite old-fashioned name? Let us know in the comments below.