Elaine
A feminine name of French origin meaning "shining light" or "sun ray".
Name Census estimates that about 128,300 living Americans carry the first name Elaine. It sits at #369 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elaine today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elaine births was 1947 (7,071 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elaine. 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 Elaine with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Elaine is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 653 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
128K
~ 1 in 2,672 Americans
Peak year
1947
7,071 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
1989 SSA rank
#369
Tracked since 1880
Census
Elaine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 176,184 people with the first name Elaine, which placed it at #313 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
#313
National first-name rank
People counted
176K
176,184 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
58.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elaine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elaine is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Black (9.3%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Elaine 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 Elaine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.0% · 135,736
- Black or African American9.3% · 16,312
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 10,385
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 9,782
- Two or more races1.7% · 2,973
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 996
Gender
Gender distribution for Elaine
Out of the 262,525 babies given the name Elaine since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Elaine as a male name
- Ranked #7,255 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1941 (28 births)
Elaine as a female name
- Ranked #369 in 2024
- 843 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (7,058 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elaine appears almost entirely female. Of the 176,185 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Elaine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elaine from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 60,259 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elaine 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 Elaine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elaines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Elaine, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,055 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elaine
The name Elaine has its roots in the ancient Greek language, where it originated as a variation of the name Helena. The name Helena itself is derived from the Greek word "helene," meaning "bright one" or "shining light." Elaine gained popularity as a distinct name during the Middle Ages, particularly in France and Britain.
In the medieval French epic poem "The Matter of Britain," which recounts the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Elaine is a prominent character. She is portrayed as the daughter of King Pelles and falls deeply in love with Sir Lancelot. This literary work played a significant role in popularizing the name Elaine across Europe.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Elaine can be found in the 12th-century work "The Lais of Marie de France," a collection of narrative poems written by the French poet Marie de France. In one of the lais, titled "The Lay of Eliduc," the name Elaine is used for a character who is the wife of a Breton knight.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Elaine. One of the most famous was Elaine de Lessenden (c. 1285–1332), an English noblewoman who was the mistress of King Edward II of England. Another was Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953), an American poet and activist known for her work with Native American communities.
In the world of literature, Elaine Dundy (1921–2008) was a renowned American novelist and biographer, best known for her satirical novel "The Dud Avocado." Elaine Tanner (1920–1985) was an American soprano who had a successful career in opera and on Broadway.
In the realm of politics, Elaine L. Chao (born 1953) served as the 24th United States Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush and the 18th United States Secretary of Transportation under President Donald Trump. She was the first Asian American woman to be appointed to a President's Cabinet in American history.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals who have carried the name Elaine throughout history, each leaving their mark in their respective fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of the name's legacy.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Elaine
People
Elaine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elaine 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
Elaine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elaine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 128,300 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elaine 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 2,672 US residents.
Is Elaine a common name?
We classify Elaine as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 262,525 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elaine most popular?
The single biggest year for Elaine was 1947, when 7,071 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elaine is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elaine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 176,184 people with the name Elaine, or 58.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #313 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 Elaine 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 Elaine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elaine appears almost entirely female. Of the 176,185 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Elaine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elaine is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Black (9.3%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Elaine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elaine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.0% (135,736 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 Elaine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elaine a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Elaine in the SSA data are female. 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 Elaine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elaine 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 Elaine 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 many people share the name Elaine?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.