Elison
Of English origin, meaning "son of Elijah".
Name Census estimates that about 101 living Americans carry the first name Elison. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Elison today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elison births was 2015 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elison. 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 Elison with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
101
~ 1 in 3,393,607 Americans
Peak year
2015
11 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,275
Tracked since 1992
Census
Elison in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 340 people with the first name Elison, which placed it at #27,081 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
#27,081
National first-name rank
People counted
340
340 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
36.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elison
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elison is Hispanic at 36.8%. The next largest groups are White (32.9%) and Black (13.2%). 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 Elison 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 Elison at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino36.8% · 125
- White32.9% · 112
- Black or African American13.2% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.4% · 42
- Two or more races3.5% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Elison
Elison leans heavily male at 89.2% of total registrations, but 11 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Elison as a male name
- Ranked #11,275 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (10 births)
Elison as a female name
- Ranked #15,027 in 2015
- 6 female births in 2015
- Peak: 2015 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Elison on both sides of the split. Of the 336 people counted with this name, 238 were male (70.8%) and 98 were female (29.2%).
Popularity
Elison: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elison 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 53 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elison remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elison 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 Elison 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 Elison
The name Elison has its origins in the Old English language, with roots that can be traced back to the 8th century AD. The name is believed to be derived from the combination of two Old English words: "ael," meaning "fire" or "bright," and "sunu," meaning "son." This suggests that the name Elison may have originally signified a "bright son" or a "son of fire."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elison can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the Great Survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. In this historical document, the name appears as "Ailisun," which is likely an early spelling variation of Elison.
During the Middle Ages, the name Elison gained some prominence among the nobility and clergy. One notable figure bearing this name was Elison de Montfort, a 13th-century English nobleman and military commander who fought alongside Simon de Montfort during the Second Barons' War against King Henry III.
In the realm of literature, the name Elison appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's iconic work, "The Canterbury Tales," written in the late 14th century. One of the pilgrims in the tales is referred to as "Elison the Student," though little is known about the character's background or significance.
Another historical figure of note was Elison of Brabant, a 15th-century Flemish painter renowned for his religious works and portraiture. His most famous painting, "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," is a masterpiece of early Netherlandish art and is housed in the St. Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium.
In the 16th century, Elison Goodfellow was an English playwright and poet who contributed several works to the Elizabethan theatre scene. While his plays have been largely forgotten, some of his poems were published in anthologies of the time, preserving his name in literary history.
Fast-forwarding to the 19th century, Elison Hoge was an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Virginia from 1843 to 1847.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have borne the name Elison throughout history, demonstrating its enduring presence across various cultures and time periods.
People
Elison + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elison 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
Elison: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elison?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 101 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elison 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 3,393,607 US residents.
Is Elison a common name?
We classify Elison as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 102 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elison most popular?
The single biggest year for Elison was 2015, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elison is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elison in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 340 people with the name Elison, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,081 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 Elison 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 Elison?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Elison on both sides of the split. Of the 336 people counted with this name, 238 were male (70.8%) and 98 were female (29.2%). 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 Elison?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elison is Hispanic at 36.8%. The next largest groups are White (32.9%) and Black (13.2%). 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 Elison most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Elison in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.8% (125 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 Elison in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elison a male name?
Yes, 89.2% of people registered as Elison 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 Elison still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elison 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 Elison 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 Elison?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.