Elam
An Aramaic baby name meaning "forever" or "eternal".
Name Census estimates that about 2,360 living Americans carry the first name Elam. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Elam today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elam births was 2015 (144 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elam. 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
2.4K
~ 1 in 145,235 Americans
Peak year
2015
144 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,237
Tracked since 1880
Census
Elam in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,961 people with the first name Elam, which placed it at #7,680 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
#7,680
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
1,961 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elam
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elam is White at 80.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.3%) and Black (4.4%). 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 Elam 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 Elam at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.8% · 1,585
- Hispanic or Latino9.3% · 183
- Black or African American4.4% · 86
- Two or more races3.3% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 14
Popularity
Elam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elam from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 930 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elam remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elam 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 Elam during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas recorded the most babies named Elam, while Alabama, Colorado, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 94 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elam
The name Elam has its origins in the ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East. It is believed to be derived from the Akkadian word "elamu," which means "highland" or "high country." This suggests that the name may have been initially associated with people who lived in the mountainous regions of present-day Iran and Iraq.
Elam was also the name of an ancient civilization that flourished in the region of modern-day southwestern Iran from around 2700 BCE to 539 BCE. The Elamites were a powerful and influential people who had their own distinct language and culture. The biblical book of Genesis mentions Elam as one of the sons of Shem, the son of Noah, further indicating the name's ancient Semitic roots.
One of the earliest recorded historical figures with the name Elam was Elam, the son of Shemaiah, a Benjamite mentioned in the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 8:24). In the Book of Ezra, Elam is also mentioned as the name of a town or region where some Israelites lived after their return from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 2:7, 31).
During the Middle Ages, the name Elam was relatively uncommon, but it did appear in some historical records. Elam of St. Albans was an English Benedictine monk and historian who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He is known for writing a chronicle of events in England during his lifetime.
In more recent times, Elam Ferguson (1805-1891) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 14th Governor of Washington Territory from 1870 to 1872. Elam Bartholomew (1822-1900) was an American architect who designed several notable buildings in Cincinnati, Ohio, including the Old City Hall and the Cincinnati Opera House.
Another notable figure with the name Elam was Elam J. Harry (1857-1936), an American businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Elam Samuel Ingraham (1840-1905) was an American naval officer who served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War and later became a rear admiral.
While not as common today as it once was, the name Elam has a rich historical background rooted in the ancient cultures of the Middle East. Its association with the biblical figure of Elam and the ancient Elamite civilization has given the name a sense of enduring significance throughout the ages.
People
Elam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elam 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
Elam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,360 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elam 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 145,235 US residents.
Is Elam a common name?
We classify Elam 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, 2,873 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elam most popular?
The single biggest year for Elam was 2015, when 144 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elam is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elam in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,961 people with the name Elam, or 0.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,680 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 Elam 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 Elam?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elam leans strongly male. 1,925 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 36 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Elam?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elam is White at 80.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.3%) and Black (4.4%). 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 Elam most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elam in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.8% (1,585 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 Elam in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elam a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elam 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 Elam still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elam 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 Elam 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 have the name Elam?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Elam, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.