I accidentally deleted my own reply! Oops.
Ethel is one of my husband's favourite names.
He'd never heard of it before I introduced it to him. He didn't grow up with the usual cultural baggage around
Ethel, and it was so refreshing to see someone delighted by
Ethel's beauty, which he found ethereal and "almost elvish". It gave me new appreciation for the name!
Ethel has a reputation for being ugly that we inherited from previous generations, I think. It was the
Everleigh of its day, so that works against it. It's Victorian trendy trash. I think it's not more popular because it takes guts to use a name that most people find hideous. Not many people want to deal with all that when naming a kid.