Find out how popular the last name Elias is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Elias.

Elias, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Elias surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Elias in America

Elias is the 1443rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Elias surname appeared 24,696 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 8 people would have the surname Elias.

We can also compare 2010 data for Elias to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Elias

The surname Elias has its origins in the biblical Hebrew name Eliyahu, which means "my God is Yahweh" or "Jehovah is God." The name is derived from the Hebrew elements "El" meaning "God" and "Yah" which is a shortened form of the name Yahweh, the proper name for the God of Israel.

The Elias surname is primarily found in Europe, particularly in countries with significant Jewish populations, due to the biblical roots of the name. It is thought to have been adopted as a surname by Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition in the late 15th century and settled in other parts of Europe and the Mediterranean region.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Elias surname can be found in the Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik, Croatia) region in the 16th century, where a Jewish family by the name of Elias is mentioned in historical records.

In England, the name appears in the 17th century, with notable individuals such as John Elias (1590-1675), a Welsh Protestant minister and one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in Wales.

Throughout history, the Elias surname has been associated with several notable figures, including:

1. Caleb Elias (1767-1828), an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
2. Ney Elias (1844-1897), a British-born explorer and naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of the flora and fauna of South America.
3. Julius Elias (1861-1927), a German jurist and legal scholar who served as President of the Reichsgericht (Imperial Court of Justice) in Germany.
4. Maurice Elias (1867-1931), a French industrialist and one of the founders of the Citroën automobile company.
5. Michel Elias (1937-2019), a Lebanese-Brazilian artist and sculptor known for his large-scale public artworks.

The Elias surname has also been linked to various place names and geographical locations, such as the town of Elias in the state of Piauí, Brazil, and the Elias Mountains in southeastern Australia.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Elias

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Elias.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Elias was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Elias has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Elias was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Elias, please contact us.

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