Elkanah
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "God has created" or "God has acquired".
Name Census estimates that about 51 living Americans carry the first name Elkanah. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Elkanah today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elkanah births was 2019 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elkanah. 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 Elkanah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Elkanah. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
51
~ 1 in 6,720,673 Americans
Peak year
2019
7 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,156
Tracked since 1982
Census
Elkanah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 154 people with the first name Elkanah, which placed it at #44,677 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
#44,677
National first-name rank
People counted
154
154 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
63.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elkanah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elkanah is Black at 63.0%. The next largest groups are White (27.9%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Elkanah 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 Elkanah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American63.0% · 97
- White27.9% · 43
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 4
- Two or more races2.6% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1
Popularity
Elkanah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elkanah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 23 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
Elkanah 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 Elkanah 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 Elkanah
The name Elkanah is of Hebrew origin, derived from the elements "El" meaning "God" and "qanah" meaning "possessed" or "acquired". It is believed to have emerged during the biblical period, sometime around the 11th century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Elkanah appears in the Old Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Samuel, Elkanah is the name of a Levite from Ramathaim-Zophim, who had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Hannah, one of his wives, was initially barren but later gave birth to the prophet Samuel after praying fervently to God.
The name Elkanah was relatively uncommon in ancient times, but a few notable historical figures bore this name. One of the earliest known individuals was Elkanah ben Meshullam, a scribe who lived in Jerusalem during the 5th century BCE. He is mentioned in the Book of Ezra as one of the leaders who helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.
Another prominent individual with this name was Elkanah ben Hilkiah, a Levite who lived in the 7th century BCE. He is mentioned in the Book of Chronicles as one of the gatekeepers responsible for guarding the entrance to the Tabernacle.
In the 2nd century BCE, there was a Jewish scholar named Elkanah ben Abuyah, also known as Acher ("Other"), who initially studied the Torah but later became a heretic and rejected his Jewish faith.
In more recent history, Elkanah Armitage (1787-1843) was a British missionary who worked in India and was instrumental in the establishment of the Baptist Mission Press in Serampore, which played a significant role in the translation and distribution of the Bible in various Indian languages.
Elkanah Cushman (1788-1825) was an American Baptist missionary who served in Burma (now Myanmar) and was one of the first Protestant missionaries to work in that region.
While the name Elkanah has fallen out of common use in modern times, it remains a part of religious and historical records, providing a glimpse into the cultural and linguistic heritage of the ancient Hebrew people.
People
Elkanah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elkanah 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
Elkanah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elkanah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 51 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elkanah 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 6,720,673 US residents.
Is Elkanah a common name?
We classify Elkanah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 54.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 52 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elkanah most popular?
The single biggest year for Elkanah was 2019, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elkanah is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elkanah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 154 people with the name Elkanah, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,677 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 Elkanah 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 Elkanah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elkanah leans strongly male. 138 people counted with this name were male (86.3%), compared with 22 female bearers (13.8%). 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 Elkanah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elkanah is Black at 63.0%. The next largest groups are White (27.9%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Elkanah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Elkanah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.0% (97 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 Elkanah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elkanah a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elkanah 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 Elkanah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elkanah 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 Elkanah 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 Elkanah as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.