Ela
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "all-bright" or "shining light".
Name Census estimates that about 2,356 living Americans carry the first name Ela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ela today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ela births was 2018 (150 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ela. 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 Ela with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ela is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 145,481 Americans
Peak year
2018
150 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,713
Tracked since 1887
Census
Ela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,798 people with the first name Ela, which placed it at #5,912 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
#5,912
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,798 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ela is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.7%). 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 Ela 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 Ela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.9% · 1,425
- Hispanic or Latino30.5% · 852
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.7% · 299
- Two or more races4.2% · 118
- Black or African American3.4% · 94
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 10
Popularity
Ela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ela from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,152 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ela remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ela 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 Ela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Ela, while Tennessee, Ohio, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 72 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ela
The name Ela has its origins in various cultures and languages around the world. In Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, the name is derived from the word "ila," which means "earth" or "Mother Earth." This connection to nature and the divine feminine energy is a recurring theme in the history of this name.
In Hebrew, the name Ela is a variant of the biblical name Elah, which means "oak tree" or "terebinth tree." This name is mentioned in the Old Testament as a town in the land of Israel and is also associated with strength and resilience, much like the sturdy oak tree.
The name Ela is also found in Slavic languages, such as Polish and Czech. In these cultures, it is a diminutive form of the name Elena or Yelena, which ultimately derives from the Greek name Helene, meaning "bright" or "shining one."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ela can be found in ancient Greek mythology, where Ela was a minor goddess associated with the sun and youth. She was often depicted as a young, radiant woman, symbolizing the beauty and vibrancy of life.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Ela. In the 13th century, Ela of Salisbury (c. 1190-1261) was an English noblewoman and the wife of William Longespée, an influential figure during the reign of King John and Henry III.
In the 16th century, Ela Kryńska (c. 1526-1591) was a Polish noblewoman and landowner. She is known for her patronage of the arts and her support of the Protestant Reformation in Poland.
In the world of literature, Ela is the main character in the novel "Ela, Ela" by Ludwik Hieronim Morstin, a 19th-century Polish writer and poet. The novel explores themes of love, loss, and the struggle for independence during the partitions of Poland.
In the field of science, Ela Bhatt (born 1933) is an Indian cooperative leader and social activist. She is the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), an organization that promotes the rights and economic empowerment of women in the informal sector.
Ela Gandhi (born 1940) is a South African activist and former Member of Parliament. She is the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi and has been a prominent figure in the struggle against apartheid and the promotion of non-violent activism.
People
Ela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ela 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
Ela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,356 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ela 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 145,481 US residents.
Is Ela a common name?
We classify Ela as "Rare". It ranks above 94.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,711 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ela most popular?
The single biggest year for Ela was 2018, when 150 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ela is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,798 people with the name Ela, or 0.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,912 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 Ela 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 Ela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ela leans strongly female. 2,750 people counted with this name were female (98.4%), compared with 45 male bearers (1.6%). 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 Ela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ela is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.7%). 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 Ela most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.9% (1,425 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 Ela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ela in the SSA data are female. 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 Ela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ela 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 Ela 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 Ela?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.