Ellaina
Feminine · “Greek Helene”
Elaine of Astolat dies of unrequited love for Lancelot and is floated down to Camelot on a barge with a letter in her hand. Malory told it in 1470, Tennyson retold it in 1832 as The Lady of Shalott, and the Victorians could not get enough of it.
How old is the name Ellaina?
Ellaina first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Ellaina alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 600 people named Ellaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ellaina most popular?
Ellaina peaked in 2011, reaching #3916 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 5,541 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Helene to Ellaina
The story of Ellaina
The story appears in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as the Fair Maid of Astolat, who loves Lancelot, is refused, and dies; her body is placed in a barge with a letter explaining herself and floats down the river to Arthur's court. Tennyson published The Lady of Shalott in 1832 and revised it in 1842, changing the setting to a tower and a mirror and a curse, and the poem became one of the most illustrated in English: Waterhouse painted it three times, Holman Hunt and Rossetti once each. Tennyson also retold the Malory version directly as Lancelot and Elaine in the Idylls of the King. The two versions have merged in general memory. What survives in both is the image of a woman carried downstream, which is why the name arrives in English with a very specific picture attached.
Meaningscholars disagree
Greek Helene, of unknown meaning
Ellaina is an American formation on Elaine or Elena. Elaine is the Old French form of Helen, whose own meaning is genuinely unknown; the derivations from a word for torch or for the moon are guesses. Elena is the Italian and Spanish form of the same name. The peak is 2011.
How the name formed
- Helene
- Elaine
- Ellaina
Related forms: Elaine · Elena · Elaina
Pronouncing Ellaina
el-LAY-nah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Ellaina and Elaina are homophones; the doubled l marks the first vowel as short.
Nicknames for Ellaina
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 201138 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3916reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −28.6%10 in 2025, from 14
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.
Ellaina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elaine in English — related form
- Elena in Italian — related form
- Elaina in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Ellainas among us
people named Ellaina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Ellaina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ellaina
- #9457
- Ellaina on the 2025 chart
- #239
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ellaina went to 10 girls in 2025, but Elaina, Elayna and Elainna and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 1,387, which makes it the 239th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,218 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 1,159 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 160,727 for Ellaina 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 Liliane test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ellaina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Liliane climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Liliane's path sketches the road Ellaina is walking now.
Ellaina 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
Ellaina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ellaina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ella is available as a short form and is a very popular name.
- Three syllables with clear middle stress.
- The letters are all read the way they look.
- Elaina and Elena are both commoner.
- The meaning of the underlying name is genuinely unknown.
- The doubled l is not doing much work.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Ellaina
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ellainas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Ellaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ellaina?
- Ellaina is one of 5 recorded spellings. Elaina is the more common one — 1,176 births in 2025 against 10 for Ellaina.
- How popular is the name Ellaina in 2025?
- Ellaina ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ellaina?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Ellaina — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ellaina with classmates?
- Ellaina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ellaina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ellaina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ellaina and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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