Ellanor
A feminine name of uncertain origin, potentially from the Welsh word "elen" meaning "fawn".
Name Census estimates that about 634 living Americans carry the first name Ellanor. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ellanor today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ellanor births was 2021 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ellanor. 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 Ellanor with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
634
~ 1 in 540,622 Americans
Peak year
2021
50 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,125
Tracked since 1913
Census
Ellanor in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 500 people with the first name Ellanor, which placed it at #20,593 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
#20,593
National first-name rank
People counted
500
500 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ellanor
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellanor is White at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (7.6%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Ellanor 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 Ellanor at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.4% · 382
- Black or African American7.6% · 38
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 35
- Two or more races6.6% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3
Popularity
Ellanor: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ellanor from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 319 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ellanor remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ellanor 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 Ellanor during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ellanors live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Ellanor, while North Carolina, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ellanor
The name Ellanor is an English feminine given name derived from the Old French name Elienor, which itself comes from the Occitan phrase alia Aenor. The name's roots trace back to the Occitan word alia, meaning "other", and the Germanic name Aenor. The earliest known spelling variations include Alienor, Alionor, Alionore, and Alianor.
Historically, the name gained widespread popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in medieval England and parts of Europe. One of the earliest documented bearers of the name was Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), the influential Queen of France and later Queen of England. Her popularity helped establish the name throughout Western Europe.
In the 13th century, the Old French variant Elienor was introduced to England by the Plantagenets, and it gradually evolved into the modern spelling of Ellanor. Another notable historical figure with this name was Eleanora di Toledo (1522-1562), an influential Duchess of Florence during the Renaissance period.
During the 16th century, the name Ellanor appeared in several literary works, including William Shakespeare's play "King John", where he referred to the character of Eleanor, the fictitious daughter of King John. This literary reference further contributed to the name's popularity in England.
In the 17th century, Ellanor was the name of a character in John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost". This literary reference helped cement the name's association with literary and intellectual circles during that era.
Other notable historical figures with the name Ellanor include Ellanor Pryor (1635-1717), an English writer and translator, and Ellanor Fenn (1744-1813), an English writer and poet. Additionally, Ellanor Tomlinson (1824-1895) was an English writer and reformer who advocated for women's rights and education.
People
Ellanor + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ellanor 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
Ellanor: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ellanor?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 634 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ellanor 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 540,622 US residents.
Is Ellanor a common name?
We classify Ellanor as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 714 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ellanor most popular?
The single biggest year for Ellanor was 2021, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ellanor 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 Ellanor in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 500 people with the name Ellanor, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,593 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 Ellanor 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 Ellanor?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ellanor appears almost entirely female. Of the 493 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 Ellanor?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellanor is White at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (7.6%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Ellanor most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ellanor in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.4% (382 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 Ellanor in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ellanor a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ellanor 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 Ellanor still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ellanor 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 Ellanor 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 Ellanor?
See how many people have the name Ellanor on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.