Elijiah
Masculine · “Hebrew Eliyahu”
Elijah is not a name with a meaning attached. It is a sentence, and it is the argument of the story it appears in. Eliyahu says my God is Yahweh, which is precisely what the prophet is contending against the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. The name states the case.
How old is the name Elijiah?
Elijiah first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Elijiah alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 1,100 people named Elijiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elijiah most popular?
Elijiah peaked in 2003, reaching #1845 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,065 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eliyahu to Elijiah
The story of Elijiah
The confrontation in 1 Kings 18 is a contest over which god answers, and it ends with the people saying the very words the prophet's name already contained: Yahweh, he is God. The narrative is built so that the name is the thesis. Hebrew naming does this often. Isaiah, Yeshayahu, is Yah is salvation. Ezekiel, Yehezkel, is God strengthens. Michael is a question, who is like God. Nathaniel is God has given. Immanuel is God with us. These are not epithets or wishes attached to a child; they are propositions, and in the prophetic books they are frequently the proposition the book is arguing. That is why the Hebrew Bible so often stops to explain a name: the explanation is doing narrative work, not linguistic work, and several of the explanations are puns rather than etymologies.
Meaning
Hebrew Eliyahu, my God is Yah
Elijiah is a respelling of Elijah, Hebrew Eliyahu, built from eli, my God, and Yahu, the divine name. Hebrew personal names are frequently full clauses of this kind rather than nouns. The extra i in this spelling is inserted where English readers hear a glide between the second and third syllables. The peak of this spelling is 2003.
How the name formed
- Eliyahu
- Elias
- Elijah
- Elijiah
Related forms: Eliyahu · Elias · Elias
Pronouncing Elijiah
ee-LY-juh
Three syllables, stress on the second. The extra i does not change the sound; it writes a glide English readers already produce.
Nicknames for Elijiah
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
- 1979
- Most boys named
- 200875 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1845reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- −46.7%8 in 2025, from 15
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.
Elijiah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eliyahu in Hebrew — same name
- Elias in Greek — same name
- Elias in Spanish — same name
Elijiahs among us
people named Elijiah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Elijiah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kippy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elijiah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kippy climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kippy's path sketches the road Elijiah is walking now.
Elijiah 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
Elijiah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elijiah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Eli is available as a short form and is a common name on its own.
- The underlying name is among the best documented in the world.
- The rhythm is the standard three-syllable shape.
- Elijah is overwhelmingly the standard spelling.
- The extra i adds a letter without adding a sound.
- It will be corrected by systems and readers alike.
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What they receive
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Elijiah
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elijiahs 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 Elijiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elijiah in 2025?
- Elijiah ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elijiah?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Elijiah — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elijiah with classmates?
- Elijiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elijiah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elijiah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elijiah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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