Elvir
A modern masculine Arabic name meaning "wise" or "sagacious individual".
Name Census estimates that about 37 living Americans carry the first name Elvir. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Elvir today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elvir births was 1996 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elvir. 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 Elvir. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
37
~ 1 in 9,263,631 Americans
Peak year
1996
7 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2013 SSA rank
#9,967
Tracked since 1996
Census
Elvir in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 471 people with the first name Elvir, which placed it at #21,522 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
#21,522
National first-name rank
People counted
471
471 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elvir
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elvir is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Black (1.9%). 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 Elvir 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 Elvir at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.6% · 403
- Hispanic or Latino10.4% · 49
- Black or African American1.9% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 7
- Two or more races0.6% · 3
Popularity
Elvir: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elvir from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 24 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
Elvir 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 Elvir 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 Elvir
The given name Elvir has its origins in the Turkish language and culture, tracing back to the Ottoman Empire period in the 15th and 16th centuries. Elvir is derived from the Turkish word "el-vir," which means "to give by hand" or "to bestow." It is believed that this name was initially given to individuals who were generous or charitable.
Elvir was a popular name among the Ottoman Turks, particularly in the regions of Anatolia and the Balkans, where the Ottoman Empire had a significant presence. The name can be found in historical records and documents from that era, although its precise origins and earliest recorded usage are difficult to pinpoint due to the scarcity of reliable sources from that period.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Elvir was Elvir Mehmed Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and military commander who lived in the late 16th century. He served as the Governor of Bosnia and played a crucial role in the Ottoman campaigns against the Habsburgs.
Another notable figure with the name Elvir was Elvir Memić, a Bosnian writer and poet who lived from 1904 to 1946. He was known for his contributions to Bosnian literature and his works exploring themes of love, nature, and the struggles of the Bosnian people during the early 20th century.
In the realm of sports, Elvir Baljić, a Bosnian professional basketball player born in 1979, achieved recognition for his successful career in various European leagues, including the Adriatic League and the Turkish Basketball Super League.
The name Elvir has also been found in historical records from other parts of the Balkans, such as Serbia and Croatia, where it was likely introduced during the Ottoman rule or through the migration of Turkish populations.
One example is Elvir Rahić, a Bosnian-Serbian writer and translator who lived from 1927 to 2021. He was known for his translations of literary works from Turkish and Persian into Serbo-Croatian, contributing significantly to the cultural exchange between the Balkans and the Middle East.
Throughout history, the name Elvir has maintained a strong presence in the Balkans and among communities with Turkish or Ottoman influences. While its usage may have evolved over time, it continues to carry the cultural and linguistic heritage of its Turkish origins.
People
Elvir + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elvir 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
Elvir: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elvir?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 37 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elvir 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 9,263,631 US residents.
Is Elvir a common name?
We classify Elvir as "Very Rare". It ranks above 49.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elvir most popular?
The single biggest year for Elvir was 1996, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elvir is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Elvir in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 471 people with the name Elvir, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,522 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 Elvir 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 Elvir?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elvir leans strongly male. 435 people counted with this name were male (94.0%), compared with 28 female bearers (6.0%). 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 Elvir?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elvir is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Black (1.9%). 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 Elvir most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elvir in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.6% (403 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 Elvir in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Elvir a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elvir 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 Elvir still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elvir 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 Elvir 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 Americans are named Elvir?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.