Head to head · Girls' names
Ellie vs Penelope
#24 vs #22 in 2025 · both climbing the charts fast
Penelope is a whisker ahead (#22 vs #24 in 2025) and both are climbing the charts fast. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote1 vote
Which one would you pick?
1 parent has voted — the split shows after you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Penelope leads 3 measures of 6; Ellie leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Ellie #366, Penelope #892 — Ellie higher
- 1890s: Ellie #415, Penelope #1378 — Ellie higher
- 1900s: Ellie #466, Penelope #1827 — Ellie higher
- 1910s: Ellie #667, Penelope #1462 — Ellie higher
- 1920s: Ellie #849, Penelope #1005 — Ellie higher
- 1930s: Ellie #1073, Penelope #830 — Penelope higher
- 1940s: Ellie #1333, Penelope #282 — Penelope higher
- 1950s: Ellie #1370, Penelope #411 — Penelope higher
- 1960s: Ellie #1525, Penelope #577 — Penelope higher
- 1970s: Ellie #1747, Penelope #882 — Penelope higher
- 1980s: Ellie #1639, Penelope #1904 — Ellie higher
- 1990s: Ellie #716, Penelope #1903 — Ellie higher
- 2000s: Ellie #212, Penelope #649 — Ellie higher
- 2010s: Ellie #62, Penelope #73 — Ellie higher
- 2020s: Ellie #27, Penelope #24 — Penelope higher
Ellie stood higher in 9 of 15 decades; Penelope took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Ellie | Penelope |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #366 | #892 |
| 1890s | #415 | #1378 |
| 1900s | #466 | #1827 |
| 1910s | #667 | #1462 |
| 1920s | #849 | #1005 |
| 1930s | #1073 | #830 |
| 1940s | #1333 | #282 |
| 1950s | #1370 | #411 |
| 1960s | #1525 | #577 |
| 1970s | #1747 | #882 |
| 1980s | #1639 | #1904 |
| 1990s | #716 | #1903 |
| 2000s | #212 | #649 |
| 2010s | #62 | #73 |
| 2020s | #27 | #24 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Ellie
- Canada#18
- Scotland#48
- France#83
- England & Wales#88
Penelope
- England & Wales#36
- Canada#49
- Scotland#71
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Ellie
Not established
It depends on which full name is behind it, and increasingly there is none. Eleanor's own origin has never been settled; Elizabeth is a Hebrew sentence about an oath; Ella is Germanic and means something like other or all. A pet form drops exactly the material that would tell you which, and a pet form used alone has no meaning at all.
Eleanor → Ellie
How it traveled
That reversal is one of the largest quiet changes in English-speaking naming. For most of recorded history a pet form was something a child was called and a full name was what went on the certificate, and the two were not confused; over the last fifty years the pet form has increasingly become the registered name, so that the records now hold hundreds of thousands of children with no formal version to grow into.
Penelope
Either "weaver" or a kind of duck, from Greek
Two readings compete. One links Πηνελόπη to πήνη (pēnē), "thread" or "weft", plus a root meaning face or eye — a reading that suits the loom in the Odyssey so neatly that scholars have long suspected it was invented to fit. The other, generally preferred by Greek etymologists, connects the name to πηνέλοψ (pēnelops), a wild duck. Neither has won outright.
Πηνελόπη (Penelopē) → Penelope (Latin) → Penelope (English)
How it traveled
The name is Greek and reaches us first through the Odyssey, composed in the eighth century BC, where Penelope holds Ithaca together for twenty years of her husband's absence. Roman writers carried the spelling into Latin unchanged, and English took it up during the Renaissance revival of classical names, when educated families began christening daughters out of Homer and Ovid.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Ellie
EL-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled l keeps the vowel short, which is doing real work: a single l would leave it long and produce a different name.
- Elle — The name with its ending removed; a complete given name in its own right and French in flavor.
- El — One closed syllable; unisex, short and completely modern.
- Lellie — A nursery reduplication; affectionate and family-only.
Penelope
puh-NEL-uh-pee
Four syllables, stress on the second. The final -e is pronounced, not silent — readers who meet the name in print before they hear it sometimes try "PEN-uh-lope", which is the one thing to head off early.
- Penny — The standard English short form for generations, and long used as a given name in its own right.
- Pen — Clipped and informal, mostly within families and among friends.
- Nell — Used in British and Irish families, partly through Penelope's old role as an English substitute for Fionnghuala.
- Nellie — The older, more affectionate extension of Nell; also stands alone as a given name.
- Also Poppy.
Who has carried each name
Ellie
Ellie Goulding (b. 1986) — "Lights" and "Love Me Like You Do" hitmaker
Ellie Kemper (b. 1980) — Star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Office
Penelope
Penélope Cruz (b. 1974) — First Spanish actress to win an Oscar
Penelope Wilton (b. 1946) — Downton Abbey's Isobel Crawley
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Ellie if you want…
- a name with fewer syllablesEllie is 2 syllables to Penelope's 4
- a name that charts abroad tooEllie is on the national lists of Canada, Scotland, France and England & Wales
Choose Penelope if you want…
- a name with more sound in itPenelope runs 4 syllables, Ellie 2
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Penny, Pen and Nell
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Ellie
Strengths
- Short, warm and among the easiest names in English for a small child to say.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- Several long formal names sit behind it if a family wants one on the certificate.
To consider
- It is a pet form used as a full name, which leaves nothing more formal underneath.
- It is currently extremely popular, which means a classroom is likely to hold more than one.
- Elly, Elli and Ellee all exist for the same sound.
Penelope
Strengths
- A documented record going back to Homer, with the spelling essentially unchanged since Latin — nothing about it needs explaining or defending.
- Penny, Pen and Nell are all long-established short forms, so there is a formal version and a casual one built in.
- Works in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese with at most an added accent, and Greek is its home language.
To consider
- The final -e trips people up in writing and in speech; expect a lifetime of gentle corrections from anyone who has only seen it on a page.
- It is climbing quickly, so a child born now may meet more Penelopes as a teenager than as a toddler, even if she is the only one in her year at first.
- Penny, the most natural short form, is also the word for a coin — worth knowing if you would rather she went by the full name.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Ellie and Penelope in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Ellie and Penelope?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Every list here names both Ellie and Penelope — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Ellie or Penelope — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Ellie or Penelope?
- Penelope, in 2025: Penelope ranked #22 with 6,225 babies; Ellie ranked #24 with 6,176 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Ellie or Penelope?
- Ellie. Over the last five years Ellie moved up 5 places; Penelope moved up 4 places.
- Which is the older name, Ellie or Penelope?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Ellie and Penelope?
- About 102,000 people named Ellie are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 104,000 people named Penelope are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Ellies or Penelopes in the classroom?
- Ellie will almost certainly be the only one in school. Penelope will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Ellie, Penelope and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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