Elajah
Hebrew name meaning "exalted by Yahweh" or "the Lord is God".
Name Census estimates that about 151 living Americans carry the first name Elajah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elajah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elajah births was 2008 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elajah. 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
151
~ 1 in 2,269,896 Americans
Peak year
2008
15 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2017 SSA rank
#14,632
Tracked since 1999
Census
Elajah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 169 people with the first name Elajah, which placed it at #42,487 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
#42,487
National first-name rank
People counted
169
169 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
75.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elajah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elajah is Black at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.0%) and White (6.5%). 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 Elajah 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 Elajah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American75.1% · 127
- Hispanic or Latino13.0% · 22
- White6.5% · 11
- Two or more races5.3% · 9
Popularity
Elajah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elajah from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 86 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Elajah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elajah 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 Elajah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elajah
The name Elajah is believed to have its origins in ancient Hebrew and Arabic cultures, dating back to biblical times. It is a variant spelling of the biblical name Elijah, which means "my God is Yahweh" or "the Lord is my God" in Hebrew.
The name Elijah is prominently featured in the Old Testament of the Bible, where Elijah was a revered prophet in ancient Israel during the 9th century BC. He is known for performing miracles and challenging the worship of pagan gods. The name Elajah is likely a variation that arose from different pronunciations and transliterations of the original Hebrew name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elajah can be traced back to the 12th century, when a Jewish scholar and philosopher named Elajah ben Shlomo Delmadigo lived in Italy. He was known for his contributions to the study of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.
In the 16th century, Elajah Bashyatsi was a prominent rabbi and author who lived in the Ottoman Empire. He wrote several influential works on Jewish law and theology.
During the 17th century, Elajah ben Solomon Zalman, also known as the Gaon of Vilna, was a renowned Lithuanian rabbi and scholar who made significant contributions to the study of Jewish law and Talmudic literature.
In more recent history, Elajah Muhammad, born in 1897, was an influential African-American religious leader and minister who played a pivotal role in the Nation of Islam movement in the early 20th century.
Another notable figure was Elajah Lovejoy, an American abolitionist and newspaper editor who was born in 1802. He was killed in 1837 for his anti-slavery views and his defense of freedom of the press, making him a martyr of the abolitionist movement.
While the name Elajah has roots in ancient Hebrew and Arabic cultures, it has been used across various religions and ethnicities throughout history, reflecting its enduring appeal and the diverse interpretations of its meaning and significance.
People
Elajah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elajah 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
Elajah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elajah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 151 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elajah 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 2,269,896 US residents.
Is Elajah a common name?
We classify Elajah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 153 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elajah most popular?
The single biggest year for Elajah was 2008, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elajah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elajah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 169 people with the name Elajah, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,487 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 Elajah 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 Elajah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Elajah on both sides of the split. Of the 172 people counted with this name, 46 were male (26.7%) and 126 were female (73.3%). 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 Elajah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elajah is Black at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.0%) and White (6.5%). 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 Elajah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Elajah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.1% (127 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 Elajah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elajah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elajah 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 Elajah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elajah 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 Elajah 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 are called Elajah?
You can see how many Americans are named Elajah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.