Elio
Masculine · “sun”
Elio is the Italian and Spanish descendant of the Roman family name Aelius — the gens of the emperor Hadrian — and Italians have long used it as their word-name for Helios, the sun of Greek myth. It is three light syllables that end on an open vowel, the same ending Marco, Matteo and Leo share. It has been on American records for over a century, quietly, and only lately has it started to climb.
How old is the name Elio?
Elio first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Elio is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,600 people named Elio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elio most popular?
Elio peaked in 2025, reaching #388 nationally. Today it ranks #388, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Elio appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Aelius to Elio
The story of Elio
The name begins in Rome as Aelius, the family name of the emperor Hadrian, born Publius Aelius Hadrianus in the first century — a name stamped on inscriptions, coins and the Aelian bridge across the Tiber. Italian and Spanish carried it forward as Elio, where it also came to serve as the vernacular form of Helios, the Greek sun. It has been recorded in the United States since the early twentieth century, arriving with Italian and Hispanic families, and it lived here modestly for generations. Its recent lift owes something to André Aciman's 2007 novel Call Me by Your Name, whose narrator is an Italian teenager named Elio, and to the 2017 film made from it.
Meaningscholars disagree
"sun", or a Roman family name of uncertain origin
Two readings sit side by side. In Italian, Elio is the standard form of Helios, the Greek sun — that is why Italian dictionaries gloss it as "sun". Historically, though, it comes down from the Latin gens name Aelius, whose own origin was already unclear to the Romans; the link between Aelius and Greek helios is proposed but not proven. Neither reading cancels the other, and both are genuinely part of the name.
How the name formed
- Aelius
- Elio
Related forms: Elio · Elio · Élio · Aelius · Helios · Eli
Pronouncing Elio
EH-lee-oh
That is the Italian and Spanish pronunciation, with a short first vowel. Many English speakers reach for EE-lee-oh instead, on the pattern of Eli. Both are heard in the US, so it helps to say which one you mean early and often.
Nicknames for Elio
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 2025818 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #388reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +92.0%818 in 2025, from 426
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.
Elio in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elio in Italian — same name
- Elio in Spanish — same name
- Élio in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Aelius in Latin — related form
- Helios in Greek — related form
- Eli in Catalan — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE. Sources
Elios among us
people named Elio are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,088 born in 2025 was named Elio
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 Margaret test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elio's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Margaret climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Margaret's path sketches the road Elio is walking now.
Elio is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Elio is headed
Elio is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 73% more babies given the name than today.
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.
Elio beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elio in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds once the first vowel is settled — four letters, no silent parts, nothing to dictate twice.
- Works unchanged in Italian and Spanish, and needs only an accent in Portuguese, so it travels without being translated.
- Comes with Eli already waiting as a short form, a name Americans know well and spell correctly.
- Documented back to the Roman gens Aelius, which gives it a record far longer than its recent rise suggests.
- The EH-/EE- split is real and will follow him. Teachers, coaches and roll-calls will guess, and he will spend a certain amount of life correcting them — cheerfully, most likely, but doing it.
- It sits very close to Elia, Elias, Elliot and Emilio, and gets mistaken for all four in writing and in speech.
- For adults who read the novel or saw the film, the name is closely tied to Call Me by Your Name. That association will fade with his own generation, but it is strong right now among grown-ups.
- The climb is steep. A name that is one-of-a-kind in a kindergarten today can be one of three by high school, so choose it because you like it rather than because it is rare.
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What they receive
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Elio
Masculine · #388 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elios are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,600 people named Elio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elio in 2025?
- Elio ranks #388 among US boy names in 2025, with 818 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elio?
- About 1 in every 2,088 US boys born in 2025 was named Elio — 818 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elio with classmates?
- Elio will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elio
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kieran#389 · Fernando#387 · Baylor#386 · Iker#390 · Cesar#385 · Kamari#391 · Khalil#384 · Jay#392
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elio? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elio and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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