Elka
Of Slavic origin, meaning "evergreen tree" or "elk".
Name Census estimates that about 676 living Americans carry the first name Elka. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elka today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elka births was 2015 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elka. 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 Elka with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
676
~ 1 in 507,033 Americans
Peak year
2015
21 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,690
Tracked since 1943
Census
Elka in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 942 people with the first name Elka, which placed it at #12,982 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
#12,982
National first-name rank
People counted
942
942 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elka
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elka is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.3%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Elka 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 Elka at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.2% · 642
- Hispanic or Latino21.3% · 201
- Black or African American6.5% · 61
- Two or more races2.0% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Elka: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elka from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 161 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elka remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elka 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 Elka during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elkas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Elka
The name Elka is of Slavic origin, primarily associated with the Czech and Slovak languages. It is a diminutive form of the name Elena, which itself derives from the Greek name Helene, meaning "bright one" or "shining light."
Elka gained popularity in the early medieval period, particularly in regions of modern-day Czech Republic and Slovakia. The name's earliest known usage can be traced back to the 9th century, when it appeared in various historical records and documents from the region.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Elka was a noblewoman from the Kingdom of Bohemia, who lived in the 11th century. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her support for the construction of several churches and monasteries.
In the 13th century, Elka Přemyslovna, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty that ruled Bohemia, gained recognition for her charitable works and her efforts to promote education among the common people.
During the Renaissance period, the name Elka was associated with several prominent female artists and writers. Elka Měšťanská, born in 1502, was a renowned Czech poet and playwright, whose works were widely celebrated for their lyrical beauty and cultural significance.
In the 19th century, Elka Krásná, a Czech painter and art teacher, made significant contributions to the development of modern art education in her country. She was born in 1822 and is remembered for her vibrant portraiture and landscape paintings.
Another notable figure with the name Elka was Elka Čapková, a Czech writer and translator who lived from 1890 to 1968. She was widely respected for her translations of works by renowned authors such as Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, and her own literary works focused on themes of social justice and women's rights.
While the name Elka has its roots in the Slavic region, it has also been adopted and adapted in other cultures over time, reflecting the global influence and interconnectedness of names and their histories.
People
Elka + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elka 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
Elka: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elka?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 676 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elka 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 507,033 US residents.
Is Elka a common name?
We classify Elka as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 715 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elka most popular?
The single biggest year for Elka was 2015, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elka is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elka in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 942 people with the name Elka, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,982 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 Elka 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 Elka?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elka appears almost entirely female. Of the 932 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Elka?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elka is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.3%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Elka most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elka in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.2% (642 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 Elka in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elka a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elka 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 Elka still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elka 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 Elka 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 Elka?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Elka at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.