Elisa
Feminine form of the Spanish name Elías, meaning "the Lord is my God".
Name Census estimates that about 40,354 living Americans carry the first name Elisa. It sits at #433 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elisa today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elisa births was 2012 (854 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elisa. 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 Elisa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Elisa is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 143 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
40K
~ 1 in 8,494 Americans
Peak year
2012
854 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2023 SSA rank
#433
Tracked since 1880
Census
Elisa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 52,350 people with the first name Elisa, which placed it at #867 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
#867
National first-name rank
People counted
52K
52,350 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
17.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
56.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elisa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elisa is Hispanic at 56.5%. The next largest groups are White (30.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.2%). 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 Elisa 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 Elisa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino56.5% · 29,584
- White30.8% · 16,108
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.2% · 3,241
- Black or African American4.2% · 2,174
- Two or more races2.0% · 1,039
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 204
Gender
Gender distribution for Elisa
Out of the 47,122 babies given the name Elisa since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Elisa as a male name
- Ranked #11,220 in 2023
- 6 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1987 (12 births)
Elisa as a female name
- Ranked #433 in 2024
- 712 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (849 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 52,348 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Elisa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elisa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 6,797 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Elisa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elisa 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 Elisa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elisas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Elisa, while Wyoming, North Dakota, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 920 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elisa
The name Elisa has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is a variant of the biblical name Elizabeth, which means "God is my oath" or "consecrated to God." The name Elisa can be traced back to the Old Testament and is derived from the Hebrew name Elisheva.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elisa can be found in the biblical Book of Kings, where it refers to the prophet Elisha, who was a disciple of the prophet Elijah. In Greek, the name is spelled as Elisaios, which later evolved into Elisa in various European languages.
During the Middle Ages, the name Elisa gained popularity across Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain. It was often associated with the Virgin Mary, as the Spanish variant Elisabet was a common name for her. In the 13th century, Saint Elisa of Cortona, an Italian penitent and mystic, helped to further popularize the name.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Elisa. One of the earliest was Elisa Mercoeur (c. 1210-1265), a French mystic and writer who founded a religious community in Paris. In the 16th century, Elisa Baciocchi (1777-1820), the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, served as the Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
In the world of literature, Elisa is the name of a character in Alexander Pope's famous poem "The Rape of the Lock" (1712). The Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini also featured an Elisa in his opera "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" (1830), based on the story of Romeo and Juliet.
Other notable figures with the name Elisa include Elisa Bonaparte (1777-1820), the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte; Elisa de Fonseca (1590-1638), a Portuguese poet and nun; and Elisa Longo Borghini (1537-1613), an Italian painter and portrait artist.
While the name Elisa has its roots in ancient Hebrew and biblical traditions, it has since been adopted and adapted by various cultures throughout history, becoming a popular choice across Europe and beyond.
People
Elisa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elisa 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
Elisa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elisa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 40,354 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elisa 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 8,494 US residents.
Is Elisa a common name?
We classify Elisa as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 47,122 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elisa most popular?
The single biggest year for Elisa was 2012, when 854 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elisa is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elisa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 52,350 people with the name Elisa, or 17.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #867 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 Elisa 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 Elisa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 52,348 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Elisa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elisa is Hispanic at 56.5%. The next largest groups are White (30.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.2%). 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 Elisa most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Elisa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.5% (29,584 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 Elisa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elisa a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Elisa 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 Elisa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elisa 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 Elisa 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 Elisa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.