Elia
A feminine name derived from the Hebrew meaning "the Lord is my God".
Name Census estimates that about 8,102 living Americans carry the first name Elia. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Elia today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elia births was 2024 (342 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elia. 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 Elia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.1K
~ 1 in 42,305 Americans
Peak year
2024
342 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#839
Tracked since 1884
Census
Elia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 18,428 people with the first name Elia, which placed it at #1,686 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
#1,686
National first-name rank
People counted
18K
18,428 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
69.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elia is Hispanic at 69.7%. The next largest groups are White (22.0%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Elia 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 Elia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino69.7% · 12,840
- White22.0% · 4,047
- Black or African American3.9% · 715
- Two or more races1.9% · 359
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 346
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 121
Gender
Gender distribution for Elia
Elia leans heavily female at 89.5% of total registrations, but 1,033 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Elia as a male name
- Ranked #4,589 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (35 births)
Elia as a female name
- Ranked #839 in 2024
- 320 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (320 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elia leans strongly female. 17,148 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 1,282 male bearers (7.0%).
Popularity
Elia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elia 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 2,064 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elia 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 Elia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Elia, while Nevada, New Mexico, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 187 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elia
The name Elia has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, deriving from the Biblical name Elijah. The name Elijah, from which Elia is a variation, is composed of two elements: "El" meaning "God" and "jah" meaning "Yahweh" or "the Lord." The name Elijah was borne by a prominent prophet in the Hebrew Bible, known for his unwavering faith and miraculous deeds.
Elia is a romanized form of the name, commonly used in various European languages, particularly in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. In these languages, the name is pronounced with a emphasis on the second syllable, as "eh-LEE-ah." The name has been in use since ancient times, with its earliest recorded instances appearing in Biblical texts and religious scriptures.
One of the earliest and most notable historical figures with the name Elia was Elia Levita, a renowned Jewish scholar and grammarian who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Born in Germany around 1469, Levita made significant contributions to the study of Hebrew grammar and the Masorah, a tradition of preserving the accurate transmission of the Hebrew Bible.
Another notable bearer of the name was Elia Capriolo, an Italian Renaissance painter active in the 16th century. Capriolo was known for his religious works and his contributions to the Venetian school of painting. His works can be found in various churches and galleries throughout Italy.
In the realm of literature, Elia is the pen name of the English essayist and critic Charles Lamb, who lived from 1775 to 1834. Lamb's essays, published under the pseudonym "Elia," are widely regarded as masterpieces of the English essay form, and his influence on the genre has been significant.
Moving forward in time, Elia Kazan, a Turkish-American director and writer, made a significant impact on the world of cinema. Born in 1909 and passing away in 2003, Kazan directed several critically acclaimed films, including "On the Waterfront" and "A Streetcar Named Desire," and was an influential figure in the Actor's Studio method of acting.
Finally, Elia Suleiman is a contemporary Palestinian filmmaker and actor, known for his unique and poetic cinematic style. Born in 1960, Suleiman's films, such as "Divine Intervention" and "It Must Be Heaven," explore themes of identity, displacement, and the complexities of life in the Middle East.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Elia
People
Elia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elia 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
Elia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,102 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elia 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 42,305 US residents.
Is Elia a common name?
We classify Elia as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,853 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elia most popular?
The single biggest year for Elia was 2024, when 342 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elia is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 18,428 people with the name Elia, or 6.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,686 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 Elia 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 Elia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elia leans strongly female. 17,148 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 1,282 male bearers (7.0%). 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 Elia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elia is Hispanic at 69.7%. The next largest groups are White (22.0%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Elia most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Elia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.7% (12,840 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 Elia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elia a female name?
Yes, 89.5% of people registered as Elia 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 Elia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elia 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 Elia 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 Elia?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Elia, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.