Ellyse
Variant spelling of Elise, a feminine name of French origin meaning "God's promise".
Name Census estimates that about 767 living Americans carry the first name Ellyse. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ellyse today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ellyse births was 2003 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ellyse. 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 Ellyse with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
767
~ 1 in 446,877 Americans
Peak year
2003
32 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,508
Tracked since 1983
Census
Ellyse in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 686 people with the first name Ellyse, which placed it at #16,449 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
#16,449
National first-name rank
People counted
686
686 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ellyse
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellyse is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.8%) and Black (7.4%). 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 Ellyse 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 Ellyse at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.5% · 477
- Hispanic or Latino11.8% · 81
- Black or African American7.4% · 51
- Two or more races6.4% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4
Popularity
Ellyse: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ellyse from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 254 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
Ellyse 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 Ellyse during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ellyses live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ellyse
The name Ellyse is a feminine given name of English origin, derived from the Hebrew name Elizabeth, which means "my God is an oath" or "my God is abundance." The name Elizabeth itself is a combination of the Hebrew words "El" (God) and "shava" (oath or abundance).
Ellyse is a variant spelling of the more common Elizabeth, likely emerging in the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance period as a way to distinguish the name or add a unique twist to its spelling. The earliest known use of the spelling Ellyse dates back to the 16th century, although records from that time are scarce.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ellyse is found in the parish records of St. Mary's Church in Bury St. Edmunds, England, where an Ellyse Woodward was listed as being baptized in 1587. Additionally, an Ellyse Browne was recorded as a resident of Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, in the late 16th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Ellyse. Ellyse Mottard (1628-1698) was a French Benedictine nun and author known for her religious writings. Ellyse Maréchal (1755-1792) was a French actress and playwright during the French Revolution era. Ellyse Bradshaw (1818-1892) was an American nurse who served in the American Civil War.
Another famous Ellyse was Ellyse Edith Wood (1871-1953), an English suffragette and activist who campaigned for women's rights and the right to vote. Ellyse Marguerite de Gaspé (1887-1967) was a Canadian painter and sculptor, renowned for her depictions of rural life in Quebec.
It's worth noting that while the name Ellyse has been used throughout history, it has never been a widely popular name in comparison to its root name, Elizabeth. However, its unique spelling and connection to the more common Elizabeth have allowed it to endure as a distinct and meaningful name choice for many parents over the centuries.
People
Ellyse + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ellyse 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
Ellyse: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ellyse?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 767 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ellyse 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 446,877 US residents.
Is Ellyse a common name?
We classify Ellyse as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 783 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ellyse most popular?
The single biggest year for Ellyse was 2003, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ellyse is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ellyse in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 686 people with the name Ellyse, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,449 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 Ellyse 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 Ellyse?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ellyse appears almost entirely female. Of the 689 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 Ellyse?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ellyse is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.8%) and Black (7.4%). 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 Ellyse most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ellyse in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (477 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 Ellyse in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ellyse a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ellyse 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 Ellyse still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ellyse 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 Ellyse 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 Ellyse?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.