Elane
Feminine
Elane is Elaine with a letter removed, and Elaine is the name of the most famous minor character in Victorian poetry. Most people who can quote the poem about her do not know she has a name, because in that poem she does not.
How old is the name Elane?
Elane first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Elane alive today was born around 1953, making them about 72 years old. About 500 people named Elane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elane most popular?
Elane peaked in 1943, reaching #2079 nationally. See the whole 1943 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Elane
Tennyson wrote about the same woman twice. The first time he called her only the Lady of Shalott: a figure in a tower, weaving what she sees in a mirror, who looks directly at the world once and dies of it. The poem became one of the most quoted things in English and was painted over and over by artists who could not leave it alone. Years later he came back to the story in his long Arthurian cycle and wrote it again, this time from the older sources, where she is Elaine of Astolat, who loves Lancelot, is refused, and asks to be laid in a barge and floated down to Camelot so that he has to look at her. The two poems are the same story told by a man who had grown up in between, and the second one gives her the name the first one withheld.
Meaningnot established
Not established
If the name is Elaine trimmed, it belongs to the Arthurian tradition and its own sense is argued over, usually linked to Helen. If it is Elena respelled, it is the Spanish and Italian form of Helen by a different road. Nothing in the record distinguishes the two.
Pronouncing Elane
ee-LAYN
Two syllables with the weight on the second. Removing the i from Elaine changes nothing that can be heard.
Nicknames for Elane
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 195418 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2079reached in 1943
- Change vs 2012
- +20.0%6 in 2024, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Elane in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Élaine in French — related form
- Elena in Spanish — related form
Elanes among us
people named Elane are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Elane sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The sound is completely familiar, so the name is read correctly on sight by everyone.
- It carries a long literary history that a child can go and read for herself.
- It is short on paper and easy to write, with no silent letters to explain.
- Elaine is far commoner, and the missing i will be supplied by nearly everyone writing it down.
- It reads as a name of an older American generation, which is either the appeal or the obstacle.
- No origin is documented for the trimmed spelling, so the meaning question has two possible answers and no settled one.
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Elane
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Elanes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Elane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elane in 2025?
- Elane is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Elane with classmates?
- Elane will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elane? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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