Eleah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath".
Name Census estimates that about 306 living Americans carry the first name Eleah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Eleah today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eleah births was 2009 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eleah. 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 Eleah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
306
~ 1 in 1,120,112 Americans
Peak year
2009
19 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,315
Tracked since 1983
Census
Eleah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 275 people with the first name Eleah, which placed it at #31,234 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
#31,234
National first-name rank
People counted
275
275 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eleah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleah is White at 47.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.6%) and Hispanic (14.5%). 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 Eleah 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 Eleah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.3% · 130
- Black or African American23.6% · 65
- Hispanic or Latino14.5% · 40
- Two or more races8.0% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
Popularity
Eleah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eleah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 119 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Eleah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eleah 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 Eleah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eleahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Eleah
The name Eleah is believed to have its origins in the Hebrew language, deriving from the word "El," which means "God." It is a variant spelling of the more common Hebrew name Eliah, which is a feminine form of the masculine name Elijah. The name Elijah itself means "my God is Yahweh" or "Jehovah is God."
In the Old Testament of the Bible, Elijah was a prominent prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab in the 9th century BCE. He is revered as a significant figure in several religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is known for his miracles and his unwavering devotion to the Abrahamic God.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Eleah can be traced back to the 17th century, but it remained relatively uncommon until the late 20th century. One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Eleah was Eleah Winton, an English poet who lived in the late 17th century, born in 1676 and died in 1742.
Another notable figure with the name Eleah was Eleah Baum, an American author and journalist born in 1893. She was known for her work as a correspondent during World War I and later as a writer of children's books and novels.
In the 20th century, Eleah Gooden was a British artist and sculptor who gained recognition for her bronze and stone sculptures. She was born in 1921 and passed away in 2008.
Eleah Moisi was an Italian opera singer and vocal coach who made significant contributions to the world of opera in the mid-20th century. She was born in 1914 and died in 2001.
Lastly, Eleah Riggs was an American mathematician and computer scientist who worked at NASA during the Space Race era. She was born in 1927 and made notable contributions to the development of early computer systems used in space exploration.
While the name Eleah has Hebrew roots and biblical connections, it has been used across various cultures and time periods, with individuals bearing this name leaving their mark in fields such as literature, art, music, and science.
People
Eleah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eleah 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
Eleah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eleah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 306 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eleah 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 1,120,112 US residents.
Is Eleah a common name?
We classify Eleah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 310 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eleah most popular?
The single biggest year for Eleah was 2009, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eleah is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eleah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 275 people with the name Eleah, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,234 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 Eleah 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 Eleah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eleah appears almost entirely female. Of the 277 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Eleah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eleah is White at 47.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.6%) and Hispanic (14.5%). 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 Eleah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eleah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.3% (130 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 Eleah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eleah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Eleah 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 Eleah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eleah 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 Eleah 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 Eleah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Eleah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.