Elisah
Of Hebrew origin, signifying "God is salvation".
Name Census estimates that about 137 living Americans carry the first name Elisah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Elisah today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elisah births was 2002 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elisah. 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
137
~ 1 in 2,501,856 Americans
Peak year
2002
18 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2015 SSA rank
#9,851
Tracked since 1978
Census
Elisah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 229 people with the first name Elisah, which placed it at #35,223 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
#35,223
National first-name rank
People counted
229
229 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
32.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elisah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elisah is Black at 32.8%. The next largest groups are White (27.5%) and Hispanic (24.0%). 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 Elisah 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 Elisah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American32.8% · 75
- White27.5% · 63
- Hispanic or Latino24.0% · 55
- Two or more races6.6% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.5% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Elisah
Elisah is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 139 total registrations, 102 (73.4%) were male and 37 (26.6%) were female.
Elisah as a male name
- Ranked #9,851 in 2015
- 7 male births in 2015
- Peak: 2002 (13 births)
Elisah as a female name
- Ranked #15,122 in 2014
- 6 female births in 2014
- Peak: 2013 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Elisah on both sides of the split. Of the 231 people counted with this name, 126 were male (54.5%) and 105 were female (45.5%).
Popularity
Elisah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elisah from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 82 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elisah 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 Elisah 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 Elisah
The name Elisah is of Hebrew origin, derived from a combination of the Hebrew words "El" meaning "God" and "Yasha" meaning "salvation" or "deliverance." It is a variant spelling of the more common name Elisha, which appears in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as the name of a prominent prophet who lived during the 9th century BCE.
Elisah first appears in the biblical Book of Kings, where Elisha is portrayed as the successor to the prophet Elijah. He is renowned for performing numerous miracles, including healing a leper, raising a boy from the dead, and making an axe head float on water. Elisah's name carried a symbolic meaning, representing the idea of God as a source of salvation or deliverance.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Elisah was Elisah ben Avuyah, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 2nd century CE and was known as "Acher" (meaning "other") due to his controversial views on Judaism. He is mentioned in the Talmud, a central text of rabbinic Judaism.
In the 5th century CE, there was Elisah bar Shimshai, a Jewish scholar from Babylon who is credited with establishing the first Jewish academy in Sura, which became a prominent center of Jewish learning in the region.
During the Middle Ages, Elisah ben Abraham ben Matityahu Hakohen, also known as Elisah Capsali, was a prominent Jewish scholar and author from Crete who lived in the late 15th century. He wrote several works on Jewish law and philosophy.
In the 16th century, Elisah ben Moshe Ashkenazi was a renowned Jewish scholar and Kabbalist from Poland. He wrote extensively on Jewish mysticism and is known for his work "Sefer Maaseh Hashem," which explored the creation of the universe.
In the 17th century, Elisah ben Jacob Cresca was a Jewish physician and scholar from Italy who wrote on various topics, including medicine, philosophy, and mathematics.
These historical figures demonstrate the enduring presence of the name Elisah throughout different periods and cultures, reflecting its deep roots in the Hebrew tradition and its association with religious scholarship and learning.
People
Elisah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elisah 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
Elisah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elisah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 137 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elisah 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 2,501,856 US residents.
Is Elisah a common name?
We classify Elisah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 139 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elisah most popular?
The single biggest year for Elisah was 2002, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elisah is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elisah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 229 people with the name Elisah, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,223 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 Elisah 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 Elisah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Elisah on both sides of the split. Of the 231 people counted with this name, 126 were male (54.5%) and 105 were female (45.5%). 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 Elisah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elisah is Black at 32.8%. The next largest groups are White (27.5%) and Hispanic (24.0%). 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 Elisah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Elisah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.8% (75 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 Elisah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elisah a male name?
Yes, 73.4% of people registered as Elisah 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 Elisah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elisah 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 Elisah 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 Elisah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.