Elanor
Feminine · “sun-star”
Elanor is a flower Tolkien invented and named in his own Elvish — sun-star, a small golden bloom that grows in Lothlórien and nowhere else.
How old is the name Elanor?
Elanor first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Elanor is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,600 people named Elanor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elanor most popular?
Elanor peaked in 2023, reaching #1614 nationally. Today it ranks #1631, 17 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Elanor appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From elen anor to Elanor
The story of Elanor
Frodo sees the elanor flowering in Lothlórien, and Sam later names his first daughter Elanor for it — one of the quieter pieces of continuity in the book's ending. Tolkien built the word from his own Sindarin roots. The name entered American use after the films of 2001–2003 and appears in the registers from that period.
Meaning
sun-star
From Tolkien's Sindarin elen, 'star', and anor, 'sun' — so 'sun-star', the name of a small golden flower in Lothlórien. Sam Gamgee names his eldest daughter after it. The Elvish elements are documented in Tolkien's own linguistic papers. It is not a spelling of Eleanor.
How the name formed
- elen anor
- elanor
- Elanor
Related forms: Eleanor · Ellanor
Pronouncing Elanor
EL-uh-nor
Three syllables, stress on the first. Eleanor is four syllables in careful speech and the two are often confused.
Nicknames for Elanor
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
- 1913
- Most girls named
- 2023129 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1614reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- −1.6%127 in 2025, from 129
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.
Elanor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eleanor in English — related form
- Ellanor in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Indiana.
Elanors among us
people named Elanor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 12,656 born in 2025 was named Elanor
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elanor
- #1631
- Elanor on the 2025 chart
- #791
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elanor went to 127 girls in 2025, but Ellanor is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 169, which makes it the 791st most-given girls’ name of the year — 840 places above the chart.
- Elanor127
- Ellanor42
About 1 girl in 9,510 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 12,656 for Elanor itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Angelika test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elanor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Angelika climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Angelika's path sketches the road Elanor is walking now.
Elanor is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Elanor is headed
Elanor looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 20% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Elanor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elanor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The sun-star meaning is concrete and comes from a documented invented language.
- Ella is available as a short form that is fully current.
- It is unusually well documented for an invented name.
- It will be read and corrected as a misspelling of Eleanor constantly.
- The association with one book is total.
- It is very new in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Elanor to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Elanor? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Elanor
Feminine · #1631 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elanors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Elanor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elanor?
- Elanor is the most-used spelling in US records — 127 of the 169 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ellanor.
- How popular is the name Elanor in 2025?
- Elanor ranks #1631 among US girl names in 2025, with 127 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elanor?
- About 1 in every 12,656 US girls born in 2025 was named Elanor — 127 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elanor with classmates?
- Elanor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elanor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irina#1631 · Kenley#1631 · Brisa#1631 · Danica#1631 · Yael#1631 · Mika#1631 · Itzayana#1631 · Arlene#1631
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elanor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elanor and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle