Electra
Feminine · “Greek elektra”
The Greek word for amber was elektron. In 1600 William Gilbert, physician to Elizabeth I, noticed that amber rubbed with cloth attracts light objects, and coined the Latin electricus, amber-like, for that property. Every use of the word electric descends from that coinage, and behind all of them is a girl's name that means shining, and a lump of fossil resin.
How old is the name Electra?
Electra first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Electra alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 900 people named Electra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Electra most popular?
Electra peaked in 1910, reaching #2140 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 5,745 places below that high. See the whole 1910 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From elektron to Electra
The story of Electra
Amber is fossilized tree resin, and the Baltic coast supplied it to the Mediterranean along one of the oldest trade routes in Europe. The Greeks valued it for its color and for the property Gilbert would later name: rubbed against wool it picks up feathers, straw and hair. They had no theory of it, but they had a word, and the word was built on the root for shining. Two and a half thousand years later the same root names the current in every wire in the world. The personal name in the United States peaks in 1910, early enough that the association at the time was theatrical rather than scientific: the Sophoclean Electra was a standard part for actresses, and Richard Strauss's opera Elektra premiered in 1909. Jung's phrase Electra complex came in 1913, after the peak, not before it.
Meaning
Greek elektra, shining or radiant
From Greek elektor, beaming or radiant, especially of the sun, and elektron, amber, named for its gleam. The mythological Electra is the daughter of Agamemnon in the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. A second Electra is one of the Pleiades. The connection to electricity runs through the amber, not the myth: Gilbert's 1600 treatise De Magnete took the Greek word for the substance and made an adjective of it.
How the name formed
- elektron
- Elektra
- Electra
Related forms: Elektra · Elettra
Pronouncing Electra
ee-LEK-trah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Some speakers say uh-LEK-trah with a reduced first vowel, which is the ordinary English treatment of an unstressed initial e.
Nicknames for Electra
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
- 1910
- Most girls named
- 200531 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2140reached in 1910
- Change vs 2023
- −7.1%13 in 2025, from 14
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.
Electra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elektra in Greek — transliteration
- Elettra in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Electras among us
people named Electra are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Electra
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Electra
- #7885
- Electra on the 2025 chart
- #929
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Electra went to 13 girls in 2025, but Elektra is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 31, which makes it the 929th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,956 places above the chart.
- Elektra18
- Electra13
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Electra 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
Fashion outlook
Electra 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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Electra beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Electra in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is settled and connects to a word every child learns.
- It has an unbroken literary record from the fifth century BC.
- Ellie is an easy and very common short form.
- The tragedies attached to the name are grim ones.
- Jung's Electra complex is widely known and will be mentioned.
- The name reads as theatrical, which is either a strength or not.
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Electra
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Electras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Electra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Electra?
- Electra is one of 2 recorded spellings. Elektra is the more common one — 18 births in 2025 against 13 for Electra.
- How popular is the name Electra in 2025?
- Electra ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Electra?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Electra — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Electra with classmates?
- Electra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Electra
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Electra? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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