Elektra
Feminine · “amber”
Elektra is why we have electricity. Greek elektron is amber, and the Greeks noticed that rubbing amber made it attract light objects; when seventeenth-century natural philosophers needed a word for that force they took the Greek for amber and made it Latin. The name came first by two thousand years.
How old is the name Elektra?
Elektra first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Elektra alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 800 people named Elektra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elektra most popular?
Elektra peaked in 2005, reaching #2278 nationally. Today it ranks #6325, 4,047 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From elektron to Elektra
The story of Elektra
Electra is the daughter of Agamemnon in the Greek tragedians, who waits for her brother Orestes and drives the revenge that ends the house of Atreus; Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides all wrote her, and Sophocles gave her a play of her own. The name has been used in English mainly through the theater and, since 1913, through Jung's coinage of a psychoanalytic term he named after her. The K spelling is the Greek letter restored, which German and the Scandinavian languages use as standard. In American records it is rare and recent, and its best year is 2005, coinciding with a superhero film that carried the name.
Meaning
amber, shining, radiant
Greek elektra, the feminine of elektor, shining or beaming, and closely tied to elektron, amber, the fossil resin. Both senses are present in the ancient word and the connection between them is the amber's brightness. William Gilbert coined the Latin electricus from the same root around 1600, which is how a woman's name became the ancestor of a technology.
How the name formed
- elektron
- Elektra
- Electra
Related forms: Ilektra · Electra · Elektra · Elettra
Pronouncing Elektra
ee-LEK-truh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Greek says ee-LEK-trah with a fuller final vowel; the K and the C spellings are identical in sound.
Nicknames for Elektra
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 200579 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2278reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- −10.0%18 in 2025, from 20
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.
Elektra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ilektra in Greek — same name
- Electra in English — spelling variant
- Elektra in German — same name
- Elettra in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Elektras among us
people named Elektra are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 89,293 born in 2025 was named Elektra
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elektra
- #6325
- Elektra on the 2025 chart
- #929
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elektra went to 18 girls in 2025, but Electra 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 — 5,396 places above the chart.
- Elektra18
- Electra13
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 89,293 for Elektra 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 Elisabet test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elektra's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elisabet climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elisabet's path sketches the road Elektra is walking now.
Elektra 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
Elektra beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elektra in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Greek meaning and one of the great roles in world theater behind it.
- The K spelling is the Greek letter restored rather than a modern decoration.
- Instantly recognizable and impossible to mishear.
- The psychoanalytic term named after the character is well known and not flattering.
- The tragedy she belongs to is about matricide, which is a lot to carry.
- Electra with a C is the standard English spelling and will be written instead.
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What they receive
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Elektra
Feminine · #6325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elektras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Elektra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elektra?
- Elektra is the most-used spelling in US records — 18 of the 31 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Electra.
- How popular is the name Elektra in 2025?
- Elektra ranks #6325 among US girl names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elektra?
- About 1 in every 89,293 US girls born in 2025 was named Elektra — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elektra with classmates?
- Elektra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elektra
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaye#6325 · Doria#6325 · Karolyn#6325 · Rosaleen#6325 · Roni#6325 · Darian#6325 · Svetlana#6325 · Fanny#6325
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elektra? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elektra and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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