Elija
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "my God is Yahweh".
Name Census estimates that about 1,051 living Americans carry the first name Elija. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Elija today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elija births was 2008 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elija. 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 Elija with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 326,122 Americans
Peak year
2008
56 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,925
Tracked since 1889
Census
Elija in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,626 people with the first name Elija, which placed it at #8,799 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
#8,799
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,626 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elija
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elija is White at 36.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.5%) and Black (21.8%). 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 Elija 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 Elija at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.5% · 594
- Hispanic or Latino28.5% · 464
- Black or African American21.8% · 354
- Two or more races8.1% · 131
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 53
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 30
Popularity
Elija: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elija from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 414 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elija 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 Elija during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elijas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Elija, while New York, Pennsylvania, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elija
The name Elija is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Elijah, which means "my God is Yahweh" or "Yahweh is God." It originated in ancient Israel and is derived from the elements "El," meaning "God," and "Yahweh," the Hebrew name for the God of Israel.
Elijah was a prominent prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. He is venerated in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. According to the biblical narratives, Elijah performed several miracles, including raising the dead, and he was eventually taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Elija dates back to the 12th century. A notable figure with this name was Elija ben Solomon, also known as Elijah Bashyatchi, a famous Jewish scholar and poet who lived in the late 15th century in Ottoman Palestine.
In the 16th century, Elija Levita was a renowned Jewish grammarian and lexicographer who made significant contributions to the study of Hebrew linguistics. He was born in Germany around 1469 and died in Italy in 1549.
During the 17th century, Elija Hayyim ben Benjamin Wolf Ferrier, also known as Elijah Montalto, was a prominent Sephardic Jewish philosopher and physician. He was born in France in 1567 and died in the Netherlands in 1616.
In the 18th century, Elija ben Shlomo Zalman, also known as the Vilna Gaon or the Genius of Vilna, was a renowned Lithuanian Jewish rabbi and scholar. He was born in 1720 and died in 1797.
Another notable figure with the name Elija was Elija Levi, an Italian rabbi and scholar who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born in Modena, Italy, in 1760 and died in 1832.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Elija, which has its roots in ancient Hebrew and has been used across various cultures and religions over centuries.
People
Elija + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elija 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
Elija: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elija?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,051 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elija 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 326,122 US residents.
Is Elija a common name?
We classify Elija as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,154 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elija most popular?
The single biggest year for Elija was 2008, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elija is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elija in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,626 people with the name Elija, or 0.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,799 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 Elija 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 Elija?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elija leans strongly male. 1,550 people counted with this name were male (95.5%), compared with 73 female bearers (4.5%). 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 Elija?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elija is White at 36.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.5%) and Black (21.8%). 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 Elija most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elija in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.5% (594 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 Elija in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elija a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elija 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 Elija still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elija 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 Elija 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 are named Elija?
Find out how many Americans are named Elija on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.