Eliot
Masculine · “my God is the Lord”
Eliot is given to both — 7,892 boys and 573 girls since 1880. See Eliot as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Eliot is the trimmest spelling in a family of English surnames that grew out of medieval pet forms of Elias — the name the Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible gave to the prophet Elijah. It traveled from scripture to street name to surname and back to a first name, and the single-L version is the one the poet T. S. Eliot carried. Three light syllables, no hard consonant anywhere in it.
How old is the name Eliot?
Eliot first appears in US birth records in 1905 — 120 years ago. The typical Eliot alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 6,900 people named Eliot are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eliot most popular?
Eliot peaked in 1960, reaching #799 nationally. Today it ranks #1401, 602 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Where it comes from
From Eliyahu to Eliot
The story of Eliot
In medieval England, Elias was a common baptismal name, and it was routinely clipped and softened in daily speech — Elie, Elyot, Eliot — with the little -ot ending that French-influenced English liked for familiar forms. Those spoken forms hardened into hereditary surnames, which is how Eliot, Elliot and Elliott all came down to us as family names in Britain. From there the surname was recycled as a first name, a habit that took particularly firm hold in the English-speaking world during the nineteenth century. The one-L spelling is the oldest-looking of the set and the closest to the medieval written forms.
Meaning
my God is the Lord
The meaning belongs to the Hebrew name Eliyahu (Elijah), which became Elias in Greek and Latin; Eliot is a medieval English diminutive of that, so it inherits the sense rather than adding one of its own.
How the name formed
- Eliyahu
- Elias
- Elyot
- Eliot
Related forms: Elliott · Elijah · Elías · Élie · Elia · Ilya
Pronouncing Eliot
EL-ee-ət
Often compressed to two syllables in quick speech, EL-yət. The stress stays firmly on the first syllable either way, and the single L changes nothing about how it sounds.
Nicknames for Eliot
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
- 1905
- Most boys named
- 2013199 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #799reached in 1960
- Change vs 2023
- −5.8%130 in 2025, from 138
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.
Eliot in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elliott in English — spelling variant
- Elijah in English — related form
- Elías in Spanish — related form
- Élie in French — related form
- Elia in Italian — related form
- Ilya in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Eliots among us
people named Eliot are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,139 born in 2025 was named Eliot
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Eliot
- #1401
- Eliot on the 2025 chart
- #69
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Eliot went to 130 boys in 2025, but Elliot, Elliott and Eliott are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 4,894, which makes it the 69th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,332 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 349 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 13,139 for Eliot 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
The Domenico test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Eliot's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Domenico climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Domenico's path sketches the road Eliot is walking now.
Eliot 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
Where Eliot is headed
Eliot should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Eliot beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Eliot in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Instantly recognizable by ear — nobody has to be told how to say it, even if they then ask how it is spelled.
- Comes with Eli ready-made: a short form that stands on its own as a full given name.
- Documented in English as a surname since the Middle Ages, and as a first name for well over a century.
- Its Elias/Elijah relatives exist in Spanish, French, Italian and Russian, so the name is legible far beyond English.
- Familiar without being crowded — a child named Eliot is unlikely to share the name in a classroom.
- Elliot and Elliott are both more common, so Eliot will be spelled with a second L or a double T by default. Expect a lifetime of gentle correcting — brief, but permanent.
- Eli is so strong a short form that some Eliots end up called Eli almost full-time. Worth being at peace with that before choosing.
- The Elliot spelling has been picking up use for girls in recent years. That has not much touched Eliot itself, but the family of spellings reads as less strictly masculine than it once did.
- It reads as a surname to some ears — which is exactly the appeal for many families, and worth noticing if your last name is also surname-like.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Eliot
Masculine · #1401 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eliots are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,900 people named Eliot are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Eliot?
- Eliot is one of 4 recorded spellings. Elliot is the more common one — 2,417 births in 2025 against 130 for Eliot.
- How popular is the name Eliot in 2025?
- Eliot ranks #1401 among US boy names in 2025, with 130 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Eliot?
- About 1 in every 13,139 US boys born in 2025 was named Eliot — 130 in all.
- Will my child share the name Eliot with classmates?
- Eliot will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Eliot
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Niklaus#1401 · Osvaldo#1401 · Advik#1401 · Mahir#1401 · Micheal#1401 · Alder#1401 · Lisandro#1401 · Aariv#1393
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eliot? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Eliot 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. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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