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

Ely, 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 Ely surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Ely in America

Ely is the 2745th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Ely surname appeared 13,130 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Ely.

We can also compare 2010 data for Ely 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 Ely

The surname Ely is an English habitation name derived from the town of Ely in Cambridgeshire. The name Ely comes from the Old English words "ēl" meaning "eel" and "ēg" meaning "island", referring to the town's location on an island in the fens.

The name Ely appears in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, which records landowners in England at the time of the Norman Conquest. This suggests that the surname Ely has been in use for at least nine centuries.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Ely is Sir William Ely, who was a Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire in the early 15th century. Another notable bearer of the name was Sir Richard Ely, who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1486 to 1492 during the reign of Henry VII.

In the 16th century, the surname Ely was sometimes spelled as Elie or Ealy. A notable example is Nathaniel Eaton (1610-1674), an English Puritan who served as the first headmaster of Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

One of the most famous individuals with the surname Ely was Ezra Stiles Ely (1786-1861), an American Presbyterian minister and educator. He served as the president of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Marion, Alabama, and wrote several influential works on theology.

Another notable bearer of the name was Ralph Ely (1809-1887), an American politician who served as the 14th Governor of New York from 1877 to 1880. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1861 to 1863.

In the 20th century, one of the most renowned individuals with the surname Ely was Norman F. Ely (1901-1985), an American pioneer aviator and record-breaking pilot. He was the first person to cross the Rocky Mountains in an airplane and set several altitude and endurance records in the 1920s.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Ely

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

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 Ely 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 Ely 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 Ely was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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