Elek
A Hungarian masculine name derived from the Greek name "Elekos".
Name Census estimates that about 226 living Americans carry the first name Elek. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Elek today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elek births was 2004 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elek. 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
226
~ 1 in 1,516,612 Americans
Peak year
2004
14 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,482
Tracked since 1996
Census
Elek in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 252 people with the first name Elek, which placed it at #33,030 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
#33,030
National first-name rank
People counted
252
252 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elek
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elek is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.1%) and Black (6.3%). 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 Elek 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 Elek at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.6% · 193
- Hispanic or Latino13.1% · 33
- Black or African American6.3% · 16
- Two or more races2.8% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 3
Popularity
Elek: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elek from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 94 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elek remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elek 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 Elek during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eleks live
Origin
Meaning and history of Elek
The name Elek is of Hungarian origin, deriving from the Greek name Alexios, which in turn comes from the Greek word "alexo" meaning "to defend" or "to help." It is believed to have first emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 11th or 12th century, when the Greek name Alexios was adopted into the Hungarian language as Elek.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elek can be found in the Gesta Hungarorum, a 13th-century chronicle of Hungarian history, where it is mentioned as the name of a prominent Hungarian nobleman. The name also appears in various Hungarian historical records and documents from the medieval period.
In terms of historical figures bearing the name Elek, one notable example is Elek Benedek (1859-1929), a Hungarian writer and journalist who was a prominent figure in the literary and cultural life of Hungary in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Another famous bearer of the name was Elek Bacsák (1926-2018), a Hungarian sculptor and ceramist who was renowned for his innovative and avant-garde works.
Other notable individuals with the name Elek include Elek Klimov (1899-1962), a Hungarian-born Soviet film director and screenwriter who is best known for his 1985 film "Come and See," which depicted the horrors of World War II. Elek Raymann (1904-1964) was a Hungarian-American industrial designer and architect who played a significant role in shaping the modern industrial design aesthetic in the United States.
Elek Schwiedland (1894-1954) was a Hungarian-born American composer and conductor who made significant contributions to the development of modern classical music in the United States. He is particularly known for his works that blended traditional Hungarian folk music with contemporary compositional techniques.
While the name Elek has its roots in the Greek language and was adopted into Hungarian during the Middle Ages, it has since become a well-established and recognized name within Hungarian culture and society, with a rich history and a number of notable individuals who have borne this name throughout the centuries.
People
Elek + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elek 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
Elek: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elek?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 226 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elek 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 1,516,612 US residents.
Is Elek a common name?
We classify Elek as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 228 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elek most popular?
The single biggest year for Elek was 2004, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elek is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elek in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 252 people with the name Elek, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,030 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 Elek 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 Elek?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elek leans strongly male. 252 people counted with this name were male (98.4%), compared with 4 female 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 Elek?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elek is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.1%) and Black (6.3%). 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 Elek most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elek in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.6% (193 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 Elek in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elek a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elek 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 Elek still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elek 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 Elek 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 share the name Elek?
Want to know how many people have the name Elek? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.