Ellijah
A Hebrew name meaning "my God is Yahweh" or "Yahweh is God".
Name Census estimates that about 567 living Americans carry the first name Ellijah. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ellijah today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ellijah births was 2008 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ellijah. 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 Ellijah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
567
~ 1 in 604,505 Americans
Peak year
2008
38 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,928
Tracked since 1993
Census
Ellijah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 445 people with the first name Ellijah, which placed it at #22,388 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
#22,388
National first-name rank
People counted
445
445 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
37.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ellijah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellijah is Black at 37.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Hispanic (18.4%). 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 Ellijah 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 Ellijah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American37.5% · 167
- White28.8% · 128
- Hispanic or Latino18.4% · 82
- Two or more races11.9% · 53
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Ellijah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ellijah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 256 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
Ellijah 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 Ellijah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ellijahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ellijah
The name Ellijah is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Elijah, which means "my God is Yahweh" or "the Lord is my God." It has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture and is believed to have originated around the 9th century BCE.
The name Elijah is found in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to the prophet Elijah, a significant figure in both Judaism and Christianity. He is revered for his miraculous acts and his unwavering devotion to God. The biblical account of Elijah's life is recorded in the Books of Kings.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elijah is in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Hebrew manuscripts dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The name appears in various forms, including Eliyahu and Eliyyahu, which are closer to the original Hebrew spelling.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ellijah or its variants. One of the most famous was Elijah the Tishbite, a prophet in the 9th century BCE who confronted King Ahab and challenged the worship of Baal in ancient Israel.
Another notable bearer of the name was Elijah ben Solomon, a renowned Jewish philosopher and scholar who lived in the 12th century CE. He was known for his work on Jewish ethics and his commentary on the Talmud.
In the Christian tradition, the name Elijah is associated with St. Elijah, a 4th-century monk who is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. He is renowned for his asceticism and his role in establishing monastic communities in the Judean Desert.
In more recent times, Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975) was a prominent African-American religious leader who founded the Nation of Islam, an influential Islamic movement in the United States.
Elijah Wood (born 1981) is a famous American actor best known for his role as Frodo Baggins in the acclaimed Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which further popularized the name in modern times.
While the name Ellijah is less common than the more traditional Elijah, it maintains a connection to the rich historical and religious significance of its Hebrew origin, reflecting the enduring appeal of this ancient name.
People
Ellijah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ellijah 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
Ellijah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ellijah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 567 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ellijah 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 604,505 US residents.
Is Ellijah a common name?
We classify Ellijah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 573 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ellijah most popular?
The single biggest year for Ellijah was 2008, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ellijah is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ellijah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 445 people with the name Ellijah, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,388 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 Ellijah 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 Ellijah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ellijah leans strongly male. 442 people counted with this name were male (97.6%), compared with 11 female bearers (2.4%). 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 Ellijah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellijah is Black at 37.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Hispanic (18.4%). 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 Ellijah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ellijah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.5% (167 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 Ellijah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ellijah a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ellijah 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 Ellijah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ellijah 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 Ellijah 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 called Ellijah?
Find out how many Americans are named Ellijah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.