Elia
Feminine · “my God is Yahweh”
Elia is given to both — 9,084 girls and 1,075 boys since 1880. See Elia as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Elia is the Italian form of the name English speakers know as Elijah — four letters carrying a line that runs back through Greek scripture to Hebrew. It has been shared between languages for centuries, masculine in Italy, feminine in Spanish and Basque use, and in American records it has stayed quietly present rather than ever crowding a classroom. Two vowels, one soft consonant, and it is done.
How old is the name Elia?
Elia first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Elia alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 7,800 people named Elia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elia most popular?
Elia peaked in 2024, reaching #841 nationally. Today it ranks #970, 129 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Elia appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Eliyahu to Elia
The story of Elia
Eliyahu belonged to the prophet of the Hebrew Bible, and when Jewish scripture was translated into Greek the name became Elias. From Greek it spread across the Christian Mediterranean, settling into Italian as Elia — still the ordinary Italian form of Elijah, and still a boy's name there. In Spanish and Basque usage the same spelling was taken up for girls alongside masculine Elías, which is why Elia now arrives in American records from two directions at once. In the United States it is recorded overwhelmingly for girls, where it sits comfortably among the Mia, Lia and Aria sounds of recent decades without belonging to that wave.
Meaning
my God is Yahweh
The root is Hebrew Eliyahu, borne by the prophet Elijah; Elia is the form that name took in Italian and, as a feminine name, in Spanish and Basque. The meaning is the same on both roads.
How the name formed
- Eliyahu
- Elias
- Elia
Related forms: Elia · Elijah · Elías · Ilias · Élie · Eliyahu
Pronouncing Elia
eh-LEE-ah
Also heard as ee-LEE-ah in the US, and as EH-lee-ah in Italian, where the stress falls on the first syllable. All three are current; expect to say which you mean.
Nicknames for Elia
High
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 2022294 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #841reached in 2024
- Change vs 2022
- −10.5%263 in 2025, from 294
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.
Elia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elia in Italian — same name
- Elijah in English — same name
- Elías in Spanish — related form
- Ilias in Greek — same name
- Élie in French — same name
- Eliyahu in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Elias among us
people named Elia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,111 born in 2025 was named Elia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elia
- #970
- Elia on the 2025 chart
- #539
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elia went to 263 girls in 2025, but Ellia, Eliyah and Eliya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 466, which makes it the 539th most-given girls’ name of the year — 431 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,449 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,111 for Elia 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 Jonathan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jonathan climbed just as high around 1984, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jonathan's path sketches the road Elia is walking now.
Elia 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
Where Elia is headed
Elia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Elia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short and phonetic on the page — four letters most English speakers can spell after hearing it once.
- Comes with ready-made short forms, Eli and Lia, both of which are established names on their own.
- Works unchanged in Italian, Spanish and Basque, and sits close to Elias, Élie and Elijah elsewhere.
- A documented line back to the prophet Elijah of the Hebrew Bible, unbroken through Greek and Italian.
- Familiar in sound without being widely used, so a child is unlikely to share it in a classroom.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled in American use: eh-LEE-ah, ee-LEE-ah and EL-ee-ah all circulate. You will be correcting people, gently, for a long time.
- In Italy, Elia is a man's name — the everyday form of Elijah. Anyone with Italian connections may read it as masculine first, which is worth knowing rather than worrying about.
- It lives in a crowded neighborhood of similar spellings — Ella, Elia, Eliana, Elie, Aaliyah — so expect the occasional wrong letter on a form.
- Because it is not widely used, it will rarely be recognized on sight; the flip side is that it stays hers rather than one of three in a room.
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What they receive
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Elia
Feminine · #970 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,800 people named Elia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elia?
- Elia is the most-used spelling in US records — 263 of the 466 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ellia, Eliyah, Eliya, Eliah, Elya, Elliya and Elyah.
- How popular is the name Elia in 2025?
- Elia ranks #970 among US girl names in 2025, with 263 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elia?
- About 1 in every 6,111 US girls born in 2025 was named Elia — 263 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elia with classmates?
- Elia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leylani#970 · Barbara#968 · Zora#968 · Jianna#972 · Ashlyn#972 · Tru#972 · Novalee#975 · Marleigh#975
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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