Elzie
Elzie is a masculine name of uncertain origin, potentially related to the Hebrew name "Eliezer" meaning "God is helper."
Name Census estimates that about 1,129 living Americans carry the first name Elzie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Elzie today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elzie births was 1917 (129 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elzie. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 303,591 Americans
Peak year
1917
129 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,225
Tracked since 1880
Census
Elzie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,013 people with the first name Elzie, which placed it at #12,322 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
#12,322
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,013 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elzie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elzie is White at 59.6%. The next largest groups are Black (33.8%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Elzie 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 Elzie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.6% · 604
- Black or African American33.8% · 342
- Two or more races3.4% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Elzie
Elzie leans heavily male at 85.5% of total registrations, but 657 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Elzie as a male name
- Ranked #11,225 in 2023
- 6 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1917 (109 births)
Elzie as a female name
- Ranked #13,940 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (25 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elzie leans strongly male. 865 people counted with this name were male (85.4%), compared with 148 female bearers (14.6%).
Popularity
Elzie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elzie 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 1,032 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
Elzie 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 Elzie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elzies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Kentucky, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Elzie, while Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 98 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elzie
The given name Elzie is an English variant of the Hebrew name Elijah, which means "my God is Yahweh" or "Jehovah is God." It is believed to have originated in the 9th century BCE during the reign of the Israelite kings Ahab and Jezebel. The name Elijah is derived from the elements "El," meaning God, and "Yah," a shortened form of the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh.
Elzie is a relatively uncommon name, but it has been used throughout history, particularly in the United States. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elzie dates back to the late 19th century, when Elzie Crisler Segar was born in 1894. He was an American cartoonist best known for creating the beloved comic strip "Popeye."
Another notable figure named Elzie was Elzie C. Higginbottom, an American businessman and politician who served as the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana from 1945 to 1949. He was born in 1892 and played a significant role in shaping the state's economic policies during his tenure.
In the realm of literature, Elzie is the name of a character in the novel "The Man Who Lived Underground" by Richard Wright, published in 1942. The novel explores themes of racism and social injustice in the United States.
Moving further back in history, Elzie Reeder Biles was an American soldier who fought in the American Civil War. Born in 1843, he served in the Union Army and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Battle of Stones River in 1862.
Another notable individual named Elzie was Elzie K. Higginbottom, an American inventor and engineer who lived from 1918 to 2008. He is credited with developing several innovative agricultural machines, including a self-propelled cotton picker, which revolutionized the cotton industry.
While the name Elzie is not as common as its Hebrew counterpart Elijah, it has a rich history dating back to ancient times and has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, including artists, politicians, soldiers, and inventors.
People
Elzie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elzie 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
Elzie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elzie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,129 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elzie 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 303,591 US residents.
Is Elzie a common name?
We classify Elzie as "Rare". It ranks above 90.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,516 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elzie most popular?
The single biggest year for Elzie was 1917, when 129 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elzie is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elzie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,013 people with the name Elzie, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,322 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 Elzie 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 Elzie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elzie leans strongly male. 865 people counted with this name were male (85.4%), compared with 148 female bearers (14.6%). 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 Elzie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elzie is White at 59.6%. The next largest groups are Black (33.8%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Elzie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elzie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.6% (604 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 Elzie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elzie a male name?
Yes, 85.5% of people registered as Elzie 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 Elzie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elzie 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 Elzie 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 Elzie as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Elzie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.