Popularity of the name Elijah, 1880–2025

Elijah was at its most popular in 2020, when 13,238 boys were given the name: about 1 in 130 boys born in the U.S. that year, ranking #4. In 2025, 11,111 boys were named Elijah, ranking #7. In all, Social Security counts 380,611 boys named Elijah since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 1,304 girls named Elijah.

Peak year

2020

Rank in 2020

#4

Babies in 2020

13,238

Rank in 2025

#7

Total since 1880

380,611

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name climbed from #11 in 2015 to #7 in 2025: 13,710 boys got it in 2015, and 11,111 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade is the 2020s so far, when 72,049 boys were named Elijah, #5 for the decade. It started at #160 in the 1880s.

Every 20 years in the records: 100 in 1880 (#135), 86 in 1900 (#210), 277 in 1920 (#355), 201 in 1940 (#404), 180 in 1960 (#580), 754 in 1980 (#279), 7,472 in 2000 (#52) and 13,238 in 2020 (#4).

Highs and lows

The most boys given the name in a single year was 14,001, in 2011. That is not its peak year: Social Security’s records hold more boys for 2011 than for 2020, so the name’s share of births was smaller. Its best rank, #4, came in its peak year.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 boys named Elijah, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.