Eligah
Masculine · “my God is the Lord”
English uses both a g and a j for the same sound and has no rule about which. Elijah takes the j; Eligah takes the g, which is what English does in gem and giant and general, and neither spelling is wrong so much as neither is predictable.
How old is the name Eligah?
Eligah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Eligah alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 600 people named Eligah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eligah most popular?
Eligah peaked in 1902, reaching #583 nationally. See the whole 1902 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eliyahu to Eligah
The story of Eligah
A cup is poured for him at every Passover meal and the door is opened. The tradition holds that he did not die — he was taken up in a whirlwind — and that he returns to announce the end of things, so a place is set and a glass filled that nobody drinks, and at a particular moment somebody gets up and opens the front door. Children are told to watch the cup to see whether the level drops. It is one of the very few religious customs built entirely around waiting for somebody who does not arrive, performed annually and cheerfully for two thousand years.
Meaning
my God is the Lord
Hebrew, and the construction joins the divine name to the shorter form of the same. It is a statement of allegiance rather than a description, made in a period when the allegiance was contested.
How the name formed
- Eliyahu
- Elijah
- Eligah
Related forms: Eliyahu · Elías · Elia
Pronouncing Eligah
ih-LY-juh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The g is soft and said exactly as the j is, so the two spellings are identical aloud.
Nicknames for Eligah
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 192439 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #583reached in 1902
- Change vs 2015
- −12.5%7 in 2021, from 8
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.
Eligah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eliyahu in Hebrew — same name
- Elías in Spanish — same name
- Elia in Italian — same name
Eligahs among us
people named Eligah 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
Eligah 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
- Eli sits inside it as a short form that is entirely current.
- The name underneath is ancient and universally recognized.
- The meaning is clear and easy to explain.
- Elijah is overwhelmingly standard and this gets corrected for life.
- The soft g is not guaranteed by any rule and strangers may harden it.
- The generation that used this spelling is now very old.
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Eligah
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Eligahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Eligah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Eligah in 2025?
- Eligah is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Eligah with classmates?
- Eligah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Edward#224 · Eric#273 · Ethan#24 · Eugene#943 · Elijah#7 · Ernest#1038 · Earl#2230 · Evan#153
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eligah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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