Elah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "oak tree" or "goddess".
Name Census estimates that about 332 living Americans carry the first name Elah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elah today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elah births was 2015 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elah. 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 Elah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
332
~ 1 in 1,032,393 Americans
Peak year
2015
33 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,314
Tracked since 1905
Census
Elah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 322 people with the first name Elah, which placed it at #28,067 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
#28,067
National first-name rank
People counted
322
322 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elah is White at 53.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.0%) and Black (9.0%). 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 Elah 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 Elah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.4% · 172
- Hispanic or Latino27.0% · 87
- Black or African American9.0% · 29
- Two or more races6.5% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2
Popularity
Elah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elah from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 180 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elah 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 Elah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Elah
The name Elah is a Hebrew name originating from ancient Semitic languages. It is believed to have derived from the Hebrew word "elah," which means "oak" or "terebinth tree." This name has its roots in the cultures of the ancient Near East, particularly in the region known as the Fertile Crescent.
One of the earliest mentions of the name can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to a Philistine deity. In the Book of Samuel, Elah is mentioned as the name of a valley near the town of Azekah, where the Israelites fought against the Philistines.
The name Elah gained prominence during the period of the united monarchy in ancient Israel, when a king named Elah ruled over the northern kingdom of Israel for a brief period in the 9th century BCE. According to the Book of Kings, Elah was the son of Baasha and ascended to the throne after assassinating his predecessor, Nadab.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Elah. One of the earliest recorded was Elah, the son of Baasha, who ruled as king of Israel from around 887 BCE to 886 BCE. Another figure was Elah, a 9th-century Judahite soldier mentioned in the Book of Chronicles.
In more recent times, Elah has been used as a given name by various individuals. One example is Elah Nawi, an Iraqi poet and writer born in 1925 and known for his contributions to modern Arabic literature. Another is Elah Dufour, a Canadian composer and musician born in 1944, who has composed works for film, television, and the stage.
Other notable individuals with the name Elah include Elah Soremekun, a Nigerian academic and author born in 1949, who has written extensively on issues related to governance and development in Africa. There is also Elah Feder, an American science journalist born in the late 20th century, who has reported on topics such as climate change and environmental issues for various publications.
While not as common as some other names, Elah has a rich history and has been borne by individuals from various cultures and eras, each contributing to the tapestry of human experience and accomplishment.
People
Elah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elah 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
Elah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 332 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elah 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 1,032,393 US residents.
Is Elah a common name?
We classify Elah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 357 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elah most popular?
The single biggest year for Elah was 2015, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elah 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 Elah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 322 people with the name Elah, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,067 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 Elah 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 Elah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elah leans strongly female. 296 people counted with this name were female (90.8%), compared with 30 male bearers (9.2%). 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 Elah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elah is White at 53.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.0%) and Black (9.0%). 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 Elah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.4% (172 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 Elah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elah 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 Elah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elah 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 Elah 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 Elah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.