Eliab
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is father".
Name Census estimates that about 883 living Americans carry the first name Eliab. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Eliab today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eliab births was 2022 (98 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eliab. 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 Eliab with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
883
~ 1 in 388,170 Americans
Peak year
2022
98 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,445
Tracked since 1989
Census
Eliab in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 561 people with the first name Eliab, which placed it at #19,036 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
#19,036
National first-name rank
People counted
561
561 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
58.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eliab
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eliab is Hispanic at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Black (35.5%) and White (4.6%). 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 Eliab 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 Eliab at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino58.1% · 326
- Black or African American35.5% · 199
- White4.6% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 9
- Two or more races0.2% · 1
Popularity
Eliab: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eliab from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 349 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eliab 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 Eliab during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eliabs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Texas, California, Virginia recorded the most babies named Eliab, while Tennessee, Ohio, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eliab
The name Eliab has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is a combination of two words: "El" which means "God" and "ab" meaning "father". Thus, the name Eliab can be translated to mean "God is father" or "My God is father".
Eliab is mentioned several times in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. It appears as the name of one of the sons of Helon from the tribe of Zebulun, as recorded in Numbers 1:9. It is also the name of one of the sons of Pallu from the tribe of Reuben, as mentioned in Numbers 26:8.
Perhaps the most notable Eliab in the Bible is the eldest son of Jesse, who was the father of King David. Eliab is described as being present when the prophet Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse's sons as the future king of Israel. Eliab initially thought Samuel had come to anoint him, but the prophet instead chose the younger David (1 Samuel 16:6-13).
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Eliab was Eliab ben Solomoh, a Jewish scholar and poet who lived in Italy during the 11th century. He is known for his works in the field of Hebrew linguistics and poetic compositions.
In the 17th century, there was an English Puritan minister named Eliab Littlewood who served as the pastor of a church in Kidderminster, England. He was born around 1620 and died in 1690.
Another notable figure with the name Eliab was Eliab Kingman, an American soldier and farmer who fought in the Revolutionary War. He was born in 1745 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and died in 1817.
In the 19th century, Eliab Wilkinson Kingman was an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana. He was born in 1811 and died in 1897.
Eliab Hoskins was a Welsh-born American Baptist minister and author who lived from 1789 to 1857. He was known for his religious writings and his work in establishing churches in various parts of the United States.
People
Eliab + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eliab 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
Eliab: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eliab?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 883 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eliab 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 388,170 US residents.
Is Eliab a common name?
We classify Eliab as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 891 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eliab most popular?
The single biggest year for Eliab was 2022, when 98 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eliab 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 Eliab in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 561 people with the name Eliab, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,036 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 Eliab 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 Eliab?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eliab appears almost entirely male. Of the 560 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Eliab?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eliab is Hispanic at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Black (35.5%) and White (4.6%). 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 Eliab most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Eliab in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.1% (326 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 Eliab in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eliab a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Eliab 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 Eliab still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eliab 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 Eliab 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 Eliab?
You can see how many people share the name Eliab on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.