Elmar
A German masculine name derived from Old High German elements meaning "bright warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 68 living Americans carry the first name Elmar. It is a predominantly male name (93.6% of registrations). The average person named Elmar today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elmar births was 1920 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elmar. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Elmar. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
68
~ 1 in 5,040,505 Americans
Peak year
1920
15 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,786
Tracked since 1913
Census
Elmar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 633 people with the first name Elmar, which placed it at #17,430 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
#17,430
National first-name rank
People counted
633
633 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elmar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elmar is White at 42.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.0%). 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 Elmar 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 Elmar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.5% · 269
- Hispanic or Latino32.5% · 206
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.0% · 101
- Black or African American7.3% · 46
- Two or more races1.4% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Elmar
Elmar leans heavily male at 93.6% of total registrations, but 20 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Elmar as a male name
- Ranked #10,157 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1923 (15 births)
Elmar as a female name
- Ranked #4,786 in 1929
- 5 female births in 1929
- Peak: 1918 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elmar leans strongly male. 586 people counted with this name were male (93.0%), compared with 44 female bearers (7.0%).
Popularity
Elmar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elmar from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 123 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elmar 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 Elmar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elmars live
Origin
Meaning and history of Elmar
The name Elmar is derived from the Germanic elements "ail" meaning "noble" and "mari" meaning "famous." It originated in the medieval period and was particularly popular among the Franks, a Germanic tribe that settled in what is now France and parts of Germany.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elmar can be found in the Frankish Annals, a historical chronicle from the 9th century. Here, an Elmar is mentioned as a count in the service of King Louis the Pious, who ruled the Frankish Empire from 814 to 840.
In the later Middle Ages, the name Elmar gained popularity across various regions of Europe. An Elmar von Oldenburg, born around 1270, was a German nobleman and knight who fought in the Crusades. Another notable bearer was Elmar of Bamberg, a 14th-century cleric and scholar renowned for his expertise in canon law.
As the name spread, it took on various spelling variations, such as Elmar, Elmer, and Aeilmar. In England, the name Elmer emerged as a distinct form, perhaps influenced by the Old English word "ælmere," meaning "famous protector."
One of the most famous individuals named Elmar was Elmar Dessau (1867-1935), a German philologist and epigraphist known for his work on ancient Latin inscriptions. Another was Elmar Klos (1910-1993), a German military officer who served in World War II and later became a writer and historian.
Other notable bearers of the name include Elmar Mukhitdinov (1924-2003), a Soviet and Uzbek film director and screenwriter; Elmar Brok (born 1946), a German politician and member of the European Parliament; and Elmar Biebl (born 1966), an Austrian film director and producer.
While the name Elmar has waned in popularity in recent decades, it remains a part of the rich tapestry of European names, reflecting the cultural and historical influences that have shaped the continent over centuries.
People
Elmar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elmar 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
Elmar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elmar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 68 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elmar 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 5,040,505 US residents.
Is Elmar a common name?
We classify Elmar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 314 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elmar most popular?
The single biggest year for Elmar was 1920, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elmar is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elmar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 633 people with the name Elmar, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,430 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 Elmar 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 Elmar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elmar leans strongly male. 586 people counted with this name were male (93.0%), compared with 44 female bearers (7.0%). 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 Elmar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elmar is White at 42.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.0%). 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 Elmar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elmar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.5% (269 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 Elmar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elmar a male name?
Yes, 93.6% of people registered as Elmar 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 Elmar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elmar 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 Elmar 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 Elmar?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Elmar at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.