Ellar
Feminine
Ellar looks like Ella with one more letter, and it was given to a small number of American girls long ago. In recent memory the best-known Ellar is an actor: Ellar Coltrane, who grew up on screen across twelve years of filming for Richard Linklater's Boyhood.
How old is the name Ellar?
Ellar was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ellar alive today was born around 1917, making them about 108 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Ellar are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Ellar most popular?
Ellar peaked in 1881, reaching #740 nationally. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Ellar
Our story of Ellar begins with Ella and one extra letter, and nobody wrote down why. The spelling went to a few American girls and then fell quiet. A century later the same five letters turned up on a film set in Texas, on the boy Richard Linklater cast in Boyhood: Ellar Coltrane, filmed for a few days each year for twelve years, so that audiences watched him grow from a small boy into a young man in under three hours. It is a rare thing for a rare name to do, to be seen growing up by the whole world, once.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No record explains Ellar. It sits one letter from Ella, and the record cannot say whether Ellar is Ella written as it was heard, a surname, or a name of its own.
Pronouncing Ellar
EL-er
Two syllables, stress on the first; it rhymes with cellar.
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 192216 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #740reached in 1881
- Change vs 1953
- 0.0%6 in 1956, from 6
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.
Ellars among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Ellar are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Ellar sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short and simply spelled, and close enough to Ella to be familiar on first hearing.
- Carried by a known contemporary bearer, the actor Ellar Coltrane.
- Distinctive without being hard to say.
- Almost everyone will read it as Ella with a typo, and the r will be dropped on forms; it will need spelling out.
- Its best-known modern bearer is a man, so some people will take Ellar for a boy's name even though the record holds it for girls; it is a fair point to have an answer ready for.
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Ellar
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Ellars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Ellar are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Ellar in 2025?
- Ellar is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Ellar with classmates?
- Ellar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ellar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ellar and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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