Elija
Masculine · “my God is Yahweh”
Elija is Elijah without its final h, and the prophet's name is one of the most emphatic in the Hebrew Bible: my God is Yahweh, a direct statement against the worship of Baal, carried by the man who confronted that worship on Mount Carmel. Its American peak in this spelling is 1889.
How old is the name Elija?
Elija first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Elija alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 1,100 people named Elija are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elija most popular?
Elija peaked in 1889, reaching #974 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 5,169 places below that high. See the whole 1889 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eliyahu to Elija
The story of Elija
Elijah is among the most important figures in the Hebrew Bible: he confronts Ahab and Jezebel, calls down fire on Mount Carmel, hears God in the sound of thin silence at Horeb, and is taken up in a whirlwind rather than dying. Jewish tradition expects his return, and a cup is set for him at every Passover seder. Christianity and Islam both carry him. English-speaking Protestants took the name up at the Reformation and American use was strong through the nineteenth century; the h-less Elija spelling belongs to that period, when American name orthography was much less standardized.
Meaning
my God is Yahweh
Hebrew Eliyahu joins eli, 'my God', to yahu, the shortened divine name — so the name is a complete sentence identifying which god the bearer's God is. That is not incidental: Elijah's whole story in First Kings is a contest between Yahweh and Baal, and his name states the position. The derivation is settled and the polemical edge is genuinely part of it.
How the name formed
- Eliyahu
- Elias
- Elijah
- Elija
Related forms: Eliyahu · Elijah · Elias · Ilyas
Pronouncing Elija
ee-LY-juh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the long i of high. Identical to Elijah; the missing h changes nothing about the sound. Spanish-speaking bearers may say eh-LEE-hah instead.
Nicknames for Elija
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
- 1889
- Most boys named
- 200856 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #974reached in 1889
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%14 in 2025, from 12
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.
Elija in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eliyahu in Hebrew — related form
- Elijah in English — spelling variant
- Elias in Greek — related form
- Ilyas in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Elijas among us
people named Elija are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Elija
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elija
- #6143
- Elija on the 2025 chart
- #11
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elija went to 14 boys in 2025, but Elijah is the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 11,185, which makes it the 11th most-given boys’ name of the year — 6,132 places above the chart.
- Elijah11,111
- Elija14
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 boy in 153 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Elija 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
Elija 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
Elija beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elija in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and expressible in four words.
- Eli is a very popular name available inside it as a short form.
- The prophet behind it is among the best-known figures in three religions.
- It will be corrected to Elijah by essentially everyone writing it down.
- Elijah is currently a top-ten American boys' name, so the sound is very common.
- The h-less spelling reads as an error to most people.
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Elija
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elijas 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 Elija are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elija?
- Elija is one of 2 recorded spellings. Elijah is the more common one — 11,111 births in 2025 against 14 for Elija.
- How popular is the name Elija in 2025?
- Elija ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elija?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Elija — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elija with classmates?
- Elija will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elija
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elija? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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