Eligio
Masculine · “chosen”
Eligio means chosen, from the Latin verb that also gives English elect and elite. The saint who carried it, Eligius, was a goldsmith before he was a bishop, and he remains the patron of metalworkers, farriers and anyone who works iron with a hammer.
How old is the name Eligio?
Eligio first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Eligio alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 1,100 people named Eligio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eligio most popular?
Eligio peaked in 1909, reaching #1277 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 5,169 places below that high. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From eligere to Eligio
The story of Eligio
Eligius of Noyon was a seventh-century Frankish goldsmith who made reliquaries and coins for the Merovingian kings, became a bishop, and was venerated across northern Europe as Saint Eloi; French folk song still carries his name. His trade made him patron of goldsmiths, blacksmiths and farriers, and by extension of horses, which is why his feast was for centuries a working holiday in the smithies. The name traveled south into Italian and Spanish as Eligio and remained in steady if modest use. It entered United States records with Italian and Mexican families and had its best year in 1909.
Meaning
chosen, selected
From Latin Eligius, from eligere, to pick out or choose, built from ex, out, and legere, to gather or select. The same verb gives English elect, eligible and elite, and legere separately gives lecture and legend. The sense is chosen in the deliberate, sorting sense rather than the favored one.
How the name formed
- eligere
- Eligius
- Eligio
Related forms: Eligio · Eligio · Eloi · Elgio
Pronouncing Eligio
eh-LEE-hee-oh
Four syllables in Spanish, where the g is an h sound. Italian says eh-LEE-joh with a soft j; the two languages give the same spelling two quite different consonants.
Nicknames for Eligio
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
- 1909
- Most boys named
- 199128 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1277reached in 1909
- Change vs 2023
- +116.7%13 in 2025, from 6
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.
Eligio in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eligio in Italian — same name
- Eligio in Spanish — same name
- Eloi in French — same name
- Elgio in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Eligios among us
people named Eligio are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Eligio
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Eligio 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
Eligio beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Eligio in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Latin meaning with a transparent link to everyday English words.
- A documented seventh-century saint with an unusually concrete biography.
- Eli is an extremely popular short form already.
- The g is said differently in Spanish and Italian, so the name has two readings.
- Elias, Elijah and Eligio are all nearby and get confused.
- It reads as an older generation's name across the Spanish-speaking world.
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Eligio
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eligios are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Eligio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Eligio in 2025?
- Eligio ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Eligio?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Eligio — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Eligio with classmates?
- Eligio will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Eligio
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eligio? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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