Elai
A masculine name from Hebrew meaning "toward God" or "my God".
Name Census estimates that about 241 living Americans carry the first name Elai. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Elai today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elai births was 2024 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elai. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Elai with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
241
~ 1 in 1,422,217 Americans
Peak year
2024
19 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,094
Tracked since 2002
Census
Elai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 198 people with the first name Elai, which placed it at #38,638 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#38,638
National first-name rank
People counted
198
198 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elai is White at 45.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Elai described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Elai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.5% · 90
- Hispanic or Latino25.8% · 51
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.1% · 28
- Black or African American7.6% · 15
- Two or more races6.6% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Elai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elai from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 104 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elai remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elai by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Elai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elais live
Origin
Meaning and history of Elai
The name Elai has its roots in ancient Hebrew, originating from the biblical Hebrew name Eli, which means "my God" or "lofty one." This name was particularly popular among Jewish communities in the Middle East and Europe during ancient and medieval times.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Elai can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a priest who served in the sanctuary at Shiloh during the time of the Judges. The book of 1 Samuel also mentions Eli, a high priest and judge of Israel, who raised the young prophet Samuel.
In the realm of religious texts, the name Elai is also found in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. The Talmud mentions several individuals with this name, including Elai ben Delai, a renowned scholar and sage who lived in the 3rd century CE.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Elai. One of the earliest recorded was Elai ben Berachel, a Jewish scholar and poet who lived in the 11th century CE in Spain. He was known for his contributions to the field of Hebrew poetry and linguistics.
Another prominent figure was Elai ben Isaac, a 13th-century Jewish philosopher and poet from Provence, France. He was a prolific writer and contributed to the development of Jewish thought and literature during the Middle Ages.
In the realm of religious leadership, Elai ben Shemaiah was a prominent Jewish leader and scholar who lived in the 2nd century BCE. He was a member of the Great Assembly, a council of Jewish sages responsible for preserving and interpreting Jewish law and tradition.
Moving to more recent times, Elai Katz (1896-1979) was a prominent Israeli educator and writer. He was one of the founders of the religious Zionist movement and played a significant role in the establishment of religious educational institutions in Israel.
Another notable figure was Elai Inbal (1936-2020), an Israeli composer and conductor. He was renowned for his compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and vocal works, and he served as the principal conductor of several prominent Israeli orchestras.
People
Elai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elai as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Elai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 241 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elai going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,422,217 US residents.
Is Elai a common name?
We classify Elai as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 243 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elai most popular?
The single biggest year for Elai was 2024, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elai is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 198 people with the name Elai, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,638 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Elai in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Elai?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elai leans strongly male. 174 people counted with this name were male (85.7%), compared with 29 female bearers (14.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Elai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elai is White at 45.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Elai most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.5% (90 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Elai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elai a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elai in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Elai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elai in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Elai can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Elai?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Elai at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.