Elwin
A masculine given name derived from Old English meaning "friend of the elves".
Name Census estimates that about 1,724 living Americans carry the first name Elwin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Elwin today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elwin births was 1926 (150 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elwin. 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 Elwin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 198,813 Americans
Peak year
1926
150 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,075
Tracked since 1882
Census
Elwin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,884 people with the first name Elwin, which placed it at #7,872 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
#7,872
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,884 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elwin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elwin is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.9%) and Black (10.5%). 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 Elwin 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 Elwin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.2% · 1,209
- Hispanic or Latino15.9% · 299
- Black or African American10.5% · 198
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.8% · 110
- Two or more races2.0% · 38
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 30
Gender
Gender distribution for Elwin
Out of the 5,161 babies given the name Elwin since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Elwin as a male name
- Ranked #6,539 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1923 (147 births)
Elwin as a female name
- Ranked #5,075 in 1926
- 5 female births in 1926
- Peak: 1926 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elwin leans strongly male. 1,854 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 36 female bearers (1.9%).
Popularity
Elwin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elwin 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 1,321 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
Elwin 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 Elwin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elwins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. New York, Michigan, Nebraska recorded the most babies named Elwin, while Mississippi, Idaho, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 73 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elwin
The name Elwin has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the elements "elf" and "wine," meaning "elf friend." It dates back to the early medieval period in England, likely emerging around the 7th or 8th century AD. This name was given to children with the belief that it would protect them from harm caused by mischievous elves or fairies.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elwin can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and settlements compiled in 1086 under the orders of William the Conqueror. The name appears in various spellings, such as Ælfwine and Alfwin, reflecting the linguistic evolution of Old English.
In the 12th century, an Elwin of Birkby is mentioned in the Chronicles of Henry of Huntingdon, a medieval historian and author. This Elwin was a landowner and nobleman who lived during the reign of King Stephen of England (1135-1154).
Another notable figure was Elwin, a Benedictine monk from Evesham Abbey in Worcestershire, England, who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He is remembered for his contributions to the abbey's chronicles and historical records.
During the 13th century, Elwin of Warfield was a prominent English landowner and knight who served under King John and King Henry III. He was involved in various military campaigns and is mentioned in several contemporary chronicles.
In the late 14th century, Elwin Waterton was a cleric and diplomat from Yorkshire, England. He served as the English ambassador to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor and was involved in negotiations related to the Western Schism, a period of rivalry between multiple claimants to the papacy.
While the name Elwin fell out of widespread use in more recent centuries, it has occasionally been revived as a given name, often inspired by its historical and literary associations with the world of elves and fairies.
People
Elwin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elwin 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
Elwin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elwin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,724 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elwin 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 198,813 US residents.
Is Elwin a common name?
We classify Elwin as "Rare". It ranks above 93.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,161 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elwin most popular?
The single biggest year for Elwin was 1926, when 150 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elwin is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elwin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,884 people with the name Elwin, or 0.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,872 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 Elwin 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 Elwin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elwin leans strongly male. 1,854 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 36 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Elwin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elwin is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.9%) and Black (10.5%). 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 Elwin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elwin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.2% (1,209 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 Elwin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elwin a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Elwin 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 Elwin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elwin 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 Elwin 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 Elwin?
See how many people share the name Elwin on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.