Ebony - Origin and Meaning of the name

The girl name Ebony [ 3 syll. e-bo-ny, eb-ony ] is pronounced EHBahNiy ^KEY. Ebony is of English origin and it is also used mainly in the English language. Developed from ebony ; ebenos meaning 'black wood'. The given name is derived from the English word referring to black wood, which is itself from the Late Latin 'ebenius' and the Old Greek 'ebenos'. The word may ultimately be of Egyptian origin. The name was popular mainly among Afro-Americans; in 1982 it was the third most popular name with blacks in the USA.

A variant form of Ebony is Eboni (English).

Ebony is uncommon as a baby name for girls. At the height of its usage in 1982, 0.126% of baby girls were given the name Ebony. Its ranking then was #132. The baby name has since experienced a marked decline in popularity, and is currently of only very modest use. Within all girl names in its group, Ebony was nonetheless the most regularly used in 2007.

Baby names that sound like Ebony include Eboni (English), Evon (English and French), and Evonne (English and French).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Ebony: EH as in "Ed (EH.D)" ; B as in "be (B.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"

Popularity Trend
for Ebony
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Ebony
in 2007