Eloisa
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "healthy and vigorous".
Name Census estimates that about 4,096 living Americans carry the first name Eloisa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Eloisa today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eloisa births was 2024 (128 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eloisa. 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 Eloisa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.1K
~ 1 in 83,680 Americans
Peak year
2024
128 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,619
Tracked since 1886
Census
Eloisa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,760 people with the first name Eloisa, which placed it at #2,502 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
#2,502
National first-name rank
People counted
9.8K
9,760 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
86.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eloisa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eloisa is Hispanic at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.9%) and White (4.2%). 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 Eloisa 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 Eloisa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino86.5% · 8,440
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.9% · 773
- White4.2% · 407
- Black or African American0.7% · 73
- Two or more races0.5% · 50
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 17
Popularity
Eloisa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eloisa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 882 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Eloisa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eloisa 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 Eloisa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eloisas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Texas, California, New Mexico recorded the most babies named Eloisa, while Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 401 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eloisa
The name Eloisa has its origins in the medieval French language and culture, stemming from the Old French name Heloise or Heloïse. It is a variant of the Germanic name Hadelouge, which combines the elements "hadu" (battle) and "lug" (famous).
The name gained significant prominence in the 12th century through the tragic love story of the French philosopher Peter Abelard and his student Heloise. Their forbidden love and eventual marriage, despite Abelard's castration by Heloise's uncle, became one of the most celebrated romantic tales of the Middle Ages.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Eloisa appears in the letters exchanged between Abelard and Heloise, which were widely circulated and transcribed across Europe, ensuring the name's enduring legacy. These letters, along with their biographies, remain treasured works of medieval literature.
One of the most famous individuals bearing the name Eloisa was Eloisa de Lusignan (1195-1244), a French noblewoman and the wife of King Peter I of Cyprus. Known for her beauty and intelligence, she played a crucial role in the political affairs of the Kingdom of Cyprus during the 13th century.
Another notable Eloisa was Eloisa Orsini (1339-1382), an Italian noblewoman and the wife of Galeazzo II Visconti, the Lord of Milan. She was celebrated for her patronage of the arts and her support of the construction of the Visconti Castle in Pavia.
In the realm of literature, the name Eloisa found immortality in Alexander Pope's celebrated poem "Eloisa to Abelard" (1717), which poetically reimagined the tragic love story of Abelard and Heloise, further cementing the name's association with passionate and ill-fated romance.
Another notable Eloisa was Eloisa Marquez de Bassauri (1756-1835), a Venezuelan educator and pioneer in women's education. She established one of the first schools for girls in Caracas and was recognized for her efforts in promoting education during the colonial era.
The name Eloisa has also been borne by several fictional characters, including Eloisa in the novel "La Vida es Sueño" by the Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca, further contributing to its literary and cultural significance.
People
Eloisa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eloisa 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
Eloisa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eloisa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,096 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eloisa 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 83,680 US residents.
Is Eloisa a common name?
We classify Eloisa as "Rare". It ranks above 96.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,901 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eloisa most popular?
The single biggest year for Eloisa was 2024, when 128 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eloisa is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eloisa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,760 people with the name Eloisa, or 3.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,502 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 Eloisa 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 Eloisa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eloisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,769 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Eloisa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eloisa is Hispanic at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.9%) and White (4.2%). 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 Eloisa most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Eloisa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.5% (8,440 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 Eloisa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eloisa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Eloisa 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 Eloisa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eloisa 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 Eloisa 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 share the name Eloisa?
Find out how many people have the name Eloisa on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.