Elmer
An Old English masculine name meaning "bright helmet" or "brave warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 29,539 living Americans carry the first name Elmer. It is a predominantly male name (98.7% of registrations). The average person named Elmer today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elmer births was 1918 (4,416 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elmer. 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 Elmer with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Elmer is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,753 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Elmer have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
30K
~ 1 in 11,603 Americans
Peak year
1918
4,416 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,166
Tracked since 1880
Census
Elmer in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 38,056 people with the first name Elmer, which placed it at #1,086 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
#1,086
National first-name rank
People counted
38K
38,056 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
12.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elmer
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elmer is White at 48.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.6%) and Black (6.9%). 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 Elmer 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 Elmer at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.7% · 18,515
- Hispanic or Latino36.6% · 13,924
- Black or African American6.9% · 2,614
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 2,034
- Two or more races1.4% · 543
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 426
Gender
Gender distribution for Elmer
Elmer leans heavily male at 98.7% of total registrations, but 1,753 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Elmer as a male name
- Ranked #1,166 in 2024
- 178 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (4,373 births)
Elmer as a female name
- Ranked #10,848 in 1980
- 5 female births in 1980
- Peak: 1928 (67 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elmer appears almost entirely male. Of the 38,051 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Elmer: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elmer from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 35,449 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elmer 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 Elmer during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elmers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio recorded the most babies named Elmer, while Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,141 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elmer
The name Elmer has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the elements "elf" and "mær," meaning "elf" and "famous." It first emerged in the 7th or 8th century and was initially used to refer to someone with elf-like qualities or characteristics.
In ancient Germanic mythology, elves were believed to be supernatural beings with magical powers and a close connection to nature. The name Elmer may have been given to individuals who were perceived as possessing these enchanting or mystical attributes.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elmer can be found in the Domesday Book, a historical record commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book lists several individuals with the name, suggesting it was in use among the Anglo-Saxon population at that time.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Elmer. One of the most famous was Elmer Gantry, a fictional character created by American writer Sinclair Lewis in his 1927 novel of the same name. The novel satirized the hypocrisy and corruption within the evangelical Christian movement of the 1920s.
Another prominent Elmer was Elmer Ellsworth, an American military officer and the first Union casualty of the American Civil War. He was born in 1837 and was killed in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1861 while removing a Confederate flag from a hotel.
In the realm of sports, Elmer Flick was a professional baseball player who played for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Naps (now the Cleveland Guardians) in the early 20th century. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963 for his exceptional batting skills.
The world of literature also had its own Elmer in the form of Elmer Rice, an American playwright and novelist born in 1892. He is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Street Scene" (1929), which depicted the lives of a diverse group of residents living in a New York City tenement.
Lastly, Elmer Ambrose Sperry was an American inventor and entrepreneur born in 1860. He is credited with developing the gyroscopic compass and the first practical autopilot for ships and aircraft, making significant contributions to the field of navigation and transportation.
While the name Elmer may have originated from mythological roots, it has been borne by individuals from various walks of life throughout history, leaving an indelible mark on fields ranging from literature and sports to military service and technological innovation.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Elmer
People
Elmer + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elmer 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
Elmer: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elmer?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29,539 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elmer 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 11,603 US residents.
Is Elmer a common name?
We classify Elmer as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 131,169 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elmer most popular?
The single biggest year for Elmer was 1918, when 4,416 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elmer is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elmer in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 38,056 people with the name Elmer, or 12.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,086 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 Elmer 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 Elmer?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elmer appears almost entirely male. Of the 38,051 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Elmer?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elmer is White at 48.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.6%) and Black (6.9%). 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 Elmer most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elmer in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.7% (18,515 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 Elmer in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elmer a male name?
Yes, 98.7% of people registered as Elmer 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 Elmer still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elmer 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 Elmer 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 Americans are named Elmer?
See how many people have the name Elmer on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.