Ellie
A diminutive of Eleanor, meaning "bright, shining light".
Roughly 95,246 people in the United States go by the first name Ellie, which ranks #21 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It is a predominantly female name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Ellie today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ellie births was 2024 (6,311 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Yvonne (95,128).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ellie. 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 Ellie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ellie is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,180 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Ellie is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
95K
~ 1 in 3,599 Americans
Peak year
2024
6,311 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#21
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ellie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 70,665 people with the first name Ellie, which placed it at #724 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
#724
National first-name rank
People counted
71K
70,665 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
23.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ellie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellie is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) 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 Ellie 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 Ellie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.6% · 54,154
- Hispanic or Latino10.9% · 7,682
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.2% · 4,374
- Two or more races4.5% · 3,175
- Black or African American1.3% · 919
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 361
Gender
Gender distribution for Ellie
Ellie leans heavily female at 98.8% of total registrations, but 1,180 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ellie as a male name
- Ranked #12,805 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1915 (28 births)
Ellie as a female name
- Ranked #21 in 2024
- 6,306 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (6,306 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ellie appears almost entirely female. Of the 70,661 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Ellie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ellie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 43,289 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ellie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ellie 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 Ellie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ellies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Ellie, while District of Columbia, Vermont, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,859 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ellie
The name Ellie is a diminutive form of the Hebrew name Eleanor, which means "bright one" or "shining light." The name has its origins in the medieval Provençal form of the Germanic name Alia, derived from the Old High German word "ali" meaning "other."
The name Eleanor first gained popularity in the 12th century when Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most powerful and influential figures of the Middle Ages, bore the name. Born in 1122, Eleanor was the Duchess of Aquitaine and later became the Queen of France and England through her marriages to Louis VII and Henry II, respectively.
In the 13th century, the name Ellie emerged as a shortened version of Eleanor, and it was commonly used among English and Scottish families. One notable Ellie from this time was Ellie of Strathearn, a Scottish noblewoman who lived in the late 13th century.
The name Ellie continued to be used throughout the centuries, although it was less common than its longer counterpart, Eleanor. One of the earliest recorded uses of Ellie as a given name was in 1586, when Ellie Calvert was born in England.
In the 17th century, Ellie Gwyn, an English courtier and mistress of King Charles II, became a notable figure in British history. Born in 1650, Ellie was a celebrated actress and one of the first women to appear on the English stage.
Another famous Ellie was Ellie Fay, an American singer and vaudeville performer who was born in 1890 and rose to popularity in the early 20th century.
In more recent times, the name Ellie has gained renewed popularity, with several notable figures bearing the name. Ellie Arroway, the main character in the novel and film "Contact" by Carl Sagan, brought the name into the public eye in the late 20th century.
Overall, the name Ellie has a rich history that spans centuries, from its origins in the medieval Provençal form of the Germanic name Alia to its use by notable figures throughout history, including Eleanor of Aquitaine, Ellie Gwyn, and Ellie Fay.
People
Ellie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ellie 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
Ellie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ellie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 95,246 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ellie 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 3,599 US residents.
Is Ellie a common name?
We classify Ellie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 100,646 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ellie most popular?
The single biggest year for Ellie was 2024, when 6,311 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ellie is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ellie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 70,665 people with the name Ellie, or 23.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #724 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 Ellie 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 Ellie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ellie appears almost entirely female. Of the 70,661 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Ellie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellie is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) 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 Ellie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ellie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.6% (54,154 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 Ellie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ellie a female name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Ellie 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 Ellie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ellie 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 Ellie 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 Ellie as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Ellie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.