Elinora
A feminine name derived from the Old English elements "ælf" and "noru", meaning "elf strength".
Name Census estimates that about 123 living Americans carry the first name Elinora. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elinora today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elinora births was 1927 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elinora. 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
123
~ 1 in 2,786,621 Americans
Peak year
1927
14 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,492
Tracked since 1906
Census
Elinora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 187 people with the first name Elinora, which placed it at #40,012 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
#40,012
National first-name rank
People counted
187
187 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elinora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elinora is White at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.1%) and Black (7.5%). 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 Elinora 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 Elinora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.8% · 110
- Hispanic or Latino24.1% · 45
- Black or African American7.5% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.9% · 11
- Two or more races3.7% · 7
Popularity
Elinora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elinora from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 86 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Elinora remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elinora 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 Elinora 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 Elinora
Elinora is a feminine given name derived from the Greek name Eleonore, which itself is a combination of the Greek elements "helene" meaning light, and "noros" meaning prudent or bright. It is a variant spelling of the more common English name Eleanor.
The name can be traced back to the medieval period in Europe, where it was popularized by the influential Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), one of the most powerful and wealthy figures of her time. As the Duchess of Aquitaine and later Queen Consort of France and England, she played a significant role in the propagation of courtly love and the cult of the Virgin Mary.
In ancient Greek mythology, the name Elinora bears a resemblance to Helen of Troy, whose abduction sparked the Trojan War. The Greek poet Homer famously described her as "the face that launched a thousand ships" in his epic poem, the Iliad.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elinora can be found in the 12th century, when Elinora de Breteville, an English noblewoman, was listed in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II in 1166. Another notable figure was Elinora of Arborea (1350-1404), a judge and de facto ruler of the Judicate of Arborea in Sardinia, who was renowned for her wisdom and leadership during a tumultuous period in Italian history.
In the realm of literature, Elinora is the name of a character in Jane Austen's novel "Sense and Sensibility," published in 1811. The character, while minor, represents the social etiquette and propriety of the Regency era.
Other notable individuals named Elinora include Elinora Ferry Lefeldt (1832-1919), an American educator and activist for women's rights, and Elinora Pruitt Stewart (1876-1933), a pioneering American homesteader and author whose memoir "Letters of a Woman Homesteader" provided a vivid account of life on the American frontier.
People
Elinora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elinora 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
Elinora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elinora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 123 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elinora 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 2,786,621 US residents.
Is Elinora a common name?
We classify Elinora as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 323 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elinora most popular?
The single biggest year for Elinora was 1927, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elinora is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elinora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 187 people with the name Elinora, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,012 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 Elinora 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 Elinora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elinora appears almost entirely female. Of the 187 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Elinora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elinora is White at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.1%) and Black (7.5%). 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 Elinora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elinora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.8% (110 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 Elinora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elinora a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elinora 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 Elinora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elinora 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 Elinora 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 common is the name Elinora?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.