Ellaina
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "shining light".
Name Census estimates that about 617 living Americans carry the first name Ellaina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ellaina today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ellaina births was 2011 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ellaina. 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 Ellaina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
617
~ 1 in 555,518 Americans
Peak year
2011
38 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,675
Tracked since 1991
Census
Ellaina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 533 people with the first name Ellaina, which placed it at #19,699 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
#19,699
National first-name rank
People counted
533
533 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ellaina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellaina is White at 68.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Ellaina 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 Ellaina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.1% · 363
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 75
- Black or African American7.3% · 39
- Two or more races7.3% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4
Popularity
Ellaina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ellaina from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 296 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ellaina remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ellaina 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 Ellaina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ellainas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ellaina
The name Ellaina is a feminine given name of Greek origin, derived from the Greek word "Helene," which means "bright" or "shining one." It is a variant spelling of the more common name "Helena," which has been in use since ancient times.
The earliest known reference to the name Helena can be found in Greek mythology. In the Iliad, Helen of Troy, also known as Helen of Sparta, was a beautiful woman whose abduction by Paris, a Trojan prince, sparked the Trojan War. Her name became synonymous with beauty and was widely used in ancient Greece.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Ellaina was Saint Ellaina, a 4th-century Christian martyr who was executed during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
During the Middle Ages, the name Ellaina gained popularity across Europe, particularly in regions with strong Greek cultural influences. It was used by several notable figures, including Ellaina Angelos, a Byzantine noblewoman and the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos, who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
In the Renaissance period, the name Ellaina was associated with the arts and literature. One notable bearer of the name was Ellaina Andreini, an Italian actress, and poet who lived from 1562 to 1604. She was renowned for her performances in commedia dell'arte plays and her poetry.
Another notable historical figure with the name Ellaina was Ellaina Luckau, a German Protestant writer and theologian who lived from 1618 to 1678. She was known for her religious writings and her efforts to promote education for women.
As the name Ellaina spread across Europe, it also found its way to other parts of the world. In the 19th century, Ellaina Fenwick was an American abolitionist and women's rights activist who fought against slavery and advocated for women's suffrage.
People
Ellaina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ellaina 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
Ellaina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ellaina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 617 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ellaina 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 555,518 US residents.
Is Ellaina a common name?
We classify Ellaina as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 624 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ellaina most popular?
The single biggest year for Ellaina was 2011, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ellaina 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 Ellaina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 533 people with the name Ellaina, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,699 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 Ellaina 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 Ellaina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ellaina appears almost entirely female. Of the 533 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 Ellaina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellaina is White at 68.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Ellaina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ellaina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.1% (363 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 Ellaina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ellaina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ellaina 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 Ellaina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ellaina 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 Ellaina 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 have the name Ellaina?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.