Ilyas
A masculine given name of Arabic origin meaning "a prophet of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,978 living Americans carry the first name Ilyas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ilyas today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ilyas births was 2024 (158 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ilyas. 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 Ilyas with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ilyas is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 173,283 Americans
Peak year
2024
158 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,252
Tracked since 1976
Census
Ilyas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,757 people with the first name Ilyas, which placed it at #8,286 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
#8,286
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,757 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
32.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ilyas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilyas is White at 32.4%. The next largest groups are Black (27.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (25.9%). 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 Ilyas 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 Ilyas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White32.4% · 569
- Black or African American27.1% · 476
- Asian and Pacific Islander25.9% · 455
- Two or more races9.7% · 170
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 84
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 3
Popularity
Ilyas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ilyas from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 905 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ilyas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ilyas 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 Ilyas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ilyas' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. New York, California, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Ilyas, while Maryland, Indiana, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 57 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ilyas
The name Ilyas has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, tracing back to the 7th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic root word "ʿIlya," which means "high" or "elevated." The name is a variant of the biblical name Elijah, which is derived from the Hebrew name "Eliyahu," meaning "my God is Yahweh."
Ilyas is a masculine name found in Islamic tradition and is widely used in the Arab world, as well as in regions with significant Muslim populations. It holds a significant place in Islamic history, as it is associated with the prophet Ilyas, who is revered as a messenger of God in the Quran and is often identified with the biblical figure Elijah.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Ilyas can be found in the Quran, where it is mentioned in various chapters, such as Surah Al-An'am and Surah Al-Saffat. In these chapters, Ilyas is described as a prophet sent to his people to guide them towards the worship of the one true God.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Ilyas. One of the most prominent was Ilyas ibn Mudar al-Kindi, a renowned Arab philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who lived in the 9th century CE. He made significant contributions to the fields of physics, optics, and metaphysics, and his works influenced the development of Islamic philosophy.
Another notable figure was Ilyas Qadri, a Sufi saint and spiritual leader who lived in the 16th century CE in present-day Pakistan. He played a crucial role in spreading the teachings of Sufism and establishing a spiritual order known as the Qadri order, which has millions of followers worldwide.
In the realm of literature, Ilyas Khuri was a prominent Lebanese writer and poet of the 20th century. Born in 1913, he authored several novels and poetry collections that explored themes of identity, culture, and the human experience.
The name Ilyas has also been associated with religious figures and scholars throughout history. Ilyas al-Maliki was a renowned Islamic scholar and jurist who lived in the 12th century CE in present-day Morocco. He was known for his expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and his influential works on the Maliki school of Islamic law.
Another notable bearer of the name was Ilyas ibn Yusuf, a Sufi mystic and spiritual leader who lived in the 11th century CE in present-day Turkey. He was the founder of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, which has had a significant impact on the spread of Sufism in Central Asia and various parts of the Muslim world.
People
Ilyas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ilyas as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ilyas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ilyas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,978 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ilyas 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 173,283 US residents.
Is Ilyas a common name?
We classify Ilyas as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,996 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ilyas most popular?
The single biggest year for Ilyas was 2024, when 158 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ilyas is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ilyas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,757 people with the name Ilyas, or 0.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,286 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 Ilyas 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 Ilyas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ilyas appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,755 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Ilyas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilyas is White at 32.4%. The next largest groups are Black (27.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (25.9%). 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 Ilyas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ilyas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.4% (569 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 Ilyas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ilyas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ilyas 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 Ilyas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ilyas 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 Ilyas 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 share the name Ilyas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.