Head to head · Boys' names
Elliot vs Evan
#151 vs #153 in 2025
Elliot is a whisker ahead (#151 vs #153 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Elliot is holding its place on the charts, Evan is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Elliot leads 3 measures of 6; Evan leads 2.
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: Elliot #827, Evan #416 — Evan higher
- 1890s: Elliot #772, Evan #449 — Evan higher
- 1900s: Elliot #970, Evan #494 — Evan higher
- 1910s: Elliot #819, Evan #471 — Evan higher
- 1920s: Elliot #717, Evan #497 — Evan higher
- 1930s: Elliot #678, Evan #536 — Evan higher
- 1940s: Elliot #504, Evan #506 — Elliot higher
- 1950s: Elliot #587, Evan #424 — Evan higher
- 1960s: Elliot #634, Evan #345 — Evan higher
- 1970s: Elliot #592, Evan #272 — Evan higher
- 1980s: Elliot #414, Evan #100 — Evan higher
- 1990s: Elliot #433, Evan #64 — Evan higher
- 2000s: Elliot #391, Evan #44 — Evan higher
- 2010s: Elliot #215, Evan #64 — Evan higher
- 2020s: Elliot #159, Evan #131 — Evan higher
Evan stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Evan has held the lead since the 1950s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Elliot | Evan |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #827 | #416 |
| 1890s | #772 | #449 |
| 1900s | #970 | #494 |
| 1910s | #819 | #471 |
| 1920s | #717 | #497 |
| 1930s | #678 | #536 |
| 1940s | #504 | #506 |
| 1950s | #587 | #424 |
| 1960s | #634 | #345 |
| 1970s | #592 | #272 |
| 1980s | #414 | #100 |
| 1990s | #433 | #64 |
| 2000s | #391 | #44 |
| 2010s | #215 | #64 |
| 2020s | #159 | #131 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Elliot
- Canada#54
- Scotland#85
- England & Wales#98
Evan
- Canada#81
- France#97
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Elliot
from Elias/Elijah, Hebrew for 'my God is Yahweh'
The chain is well documented: Hebrew Eliyahu became Greek and Latin Elias, which medieval England shortened to Elis and French speakers dressed with the diminutive endings -ot and -et. A minority of English Elliot families instead trace their surname to Old English personal names beginning Æthel-, but the Elias route accounts for the name as it is used today.
Eliyahu → Elias → Elis → Eliot → Elliot
How it traveled
The Hebrew name Eliyahu reached western Europe as Elias, and by the Middle Ages English speakers were using it in the clipped form Elis. French diminutive suffixes turned that into Eliot, and once a personal name settles into everyday use it tends to harden into a surname — which is what happened, most visibly among the riding families of the Scottish Borders, where Elliot became one of the great Liddesdale names.
Evan
God is gracious
Evan is the anglicized form of Welsh Ifan, a Welsh version of John, from Hebrew Yohanan, 'Yahweh is gracious'. In Scotland the same spelling was also used to write the unrelated Gaelic name Eòghann, so a Scottish Evan may sit on a different root — but the Welsh line is the one that gave the name to English.
Yohanan → Iohannes → Ieuan → Ifan → Evan
How it traveled
Latin Iohannes entered Welsh as Ieuan, softened to Ifan, and was written Evan when Welsh names were put into English spelling. The surname Evans — 'son of Evan' — became one of the most common in Wales, which tells you how ordinary the given name already was there.
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
Elliot
EL-ee-ut
Stress falls on the first syllable. Many speakers compress the middle, so it lands closer to EL-yut in ordinary speech. The spellings Elliot, Elliott and Eliot are all said the same way.
- Eli — The most common short form, and a fully established given name in its own right, so it works on a résumé as well as a playground.
- El — Informal, family-level, and gender-neutral.
- Ellie — Used informally, mostly for girls named Elliot; it overlaps with Ellie as a standalone name from Eleanor and Elizabeth.
- Elly — A spelling variant of the same informal short form.
- Also Ells.
Evan
EV-un
Stress on the first syllable, rhyming with 'heaven' minus the h. The Welsh forms behind it sound different — Ifan is closer to EE-van, Ieuan closer to YAY-an — and French speakers, where the name also charts, tend toward eh-VAHN with the stress at the back.
- Ev — The one short form in ordinary use; informal, family-and-friends register.
- Evs — Playground and teammate use, mostly among younger speakers.
- Van — Occasional, drawn from the second syllable; also a standalone name in Dutch usage.
Who has carried each name
Elliot
Elliot Page (b. 1987) — Juno and Inception star
Evan
Evan Peters (b. 1987) — Emmy-winning American Horror Story shapeshifter
Evan Spiegel (b. 1990) — Co-founded Snapchat
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 Elliot if you want…
- a name on the way upup 13 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itElliot runs 3 syllables, Evan 2
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Eli, El and Ellie
- a name that charts abroad tooElliot is on the national lists of Canada, Scotland and England & Wales
Choose Evan if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsEvan is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesEvan is 2 syllables to Elliot's 3
- a name that feels very nowEvan is stepping back from its peak
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
Elliot
Strengths
- Eli is a ready-made short form that already stands alone as a name, so the child has a formal and an informal option from day one.
- Recognized across the English-speaking world — it charts in Canada, Scotland, and England and Wales as well as the US.
- Its parent name, Elias, has close relatives in German, French, Spanish and Italian, so the root travels even where this spelling does not.
To consider
- The three spellings — Elliot, Elliott and Eliot — sound identical, so this is a name that gets spelled aloud for life. Choosing the one-T version means correcting people who default to Elliott.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy. A girl named Elliot will be read as a boy on paper more often than not, and that is worth deciding you are comfortable with rather than discovering later.
- The Ellie short form pulls toward girls' names, so a boy called Elliot may end up with Eli or El instead by his own preference.
Evan
Strengths
- Spelled exactly as it sounds in English, so it survives phone calls, forms and roll calls without correction.
- Charts in Canada and France as well as the United States, so it crosses borders without becoming a different word.
- A documented line running back through Welsh Ifan and Ieuan to John — one of the longest continuous records any Western name has.
To consider
- Evan and Ethan sit one consonant apart, and Ethan is far more common. Expect the occasional mishearing, especially in noisy rooms and over the phone.
- Ewan, Evann and Evin all exist, and Owen sounds close enough to be substituted by people in a hurry. The base spelling is the one most Americans will guess, but not the only one out there.
- The name resists shortening. If you like giving a child a long formal name with a smaller everyday version, Evan does not really offer that.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Elliot
40%chance Elliot feels dated by 2040
Elliot sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
Evan
78%chance Evan feels dated by 2040
Evan is coming down from a big peak (#35 in 2009). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
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 Elliot and Evan in full.
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Decide together
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Elliot and Evan — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Elliot or Evan — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Elliot or Evan?
- Elliot, in 2025: Elliot ranked #151 with 2,417 babies; Evan ranked #153 with 2,412 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Elliot or Evan?
- Elliot. Over the last five years Elliot moved up 13 places; Evan moved down 48 places.
- Which is the older name, Elliot or Evan?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Elliot and Evan?
- About 54,000 people named Elliot are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 275,000 people named Evan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Elliots or Evans in the classroom?
- Elliot will almost certainly be the only one in school. Evan 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
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