Elleanor
Feminine
Elleanor is a respelling of Eleanor, a name with one of the more genuinely mysterious histories in Europe — it arrived in England with a twelfth-century queen and nobody has settled where she got it.
How old is the name Elleanor?
Elleanor first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Elleanor is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Elleanor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elleanor most popular?
Elleanor peaked in 2020, reaching #2850 nationally. Today it ranks #3249, 399 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Alienor to Elleanor
The story of Elleanor
Eleanor of Aquitaine brought the name Alienor to England when she married Henry II, and it became one of the standard English royal and noble names for the next four hundred years. English reshaped it as Eleanor, Elinor and Alianore, all of them used interchangeably in medieval documents. The doubled-l spelling belongs to that same long habit of writing the name however it looked right, continued into the present.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The origin is not established. The Provençal Alienor is the earliest form; a derivation from a phrase meaning the other Aenor has been offered and is doubted, and a connection to Helen is popular and not supported. What is certain is the chain from Alienor to Eleanor.
How the name formed
- Alienor
- Eleanor
- Elleanor
Related forms: Éléonore · Eleonora · Leonor · Elinor
Pronouncing Elleanor
EL-uh-nor
Three syllables, first stressed. The doubled l changes nothing you can hear.
Nicknames for Elleanor
High
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
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 202057 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2850reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +17.1%48 in 2025, from 41
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.
Elleanor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Éléonore in French — same name
- Eleonora in Italian — same name
- Leonor in Spanish — same name
- Elinor in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Tennessee.
Elleanors among us
people named Elleanor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was named Elleanor
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elleanor
- #3249
- Elleanor on the 2025 chart
- #15
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elleanor went to 48 girls in 2025, but Eleanor is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 7,697, which makes it the 15th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,234 places above the chart.
- Eleanor7,649
- Elleanor48
About 1 girl in 209 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 33,485 for Elleanor 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 Janalyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elleanor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Janalyn climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Janalyn's path sketches the road Elleanor is walking now.
Elleanor 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 Elleanor is headed
Elleanor should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Elleanor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elleanor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented eight-hundred-year record in English royal and ordinary use alike.
- Four complete short forms — Ellie, Nora, Nell, Leni — all with their own histories.
- The sound is familiar everywhere in Europe.
- Eleanor is overwhelmingly the standard spelling and will be written for her constantly.
- Eleanor, Elinor, Elanor and Elleanor are four live spellings of one name.
- The meaning is genuinely unknown, which surprises people who expect a famous name to have one.
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What they receive
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Elleanor
Feminine · #3249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elleanors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Elleanor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elleanor?
- Elleanor is one of 2 recorded spellings. Eleanor is the more common one — 7,649 births in 2025 against 48 for Elleanor.
- How popular is the name Elleanor in 2025?
- Elleanor ranks #3249 among US girl names in 2025, with 48 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elleanor?
- About 1 in every 33,485 US girls born in 2025 was named Elleanor — 48 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elleanor with classmates?
- Elleanor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elleanor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aisley#3249 · Quinley#3249 · Rosetta#3249 · Avalee#3249 · Unknown#3249 · Livi#3249 · Delina#3249 · Aniah#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elleanor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elleanor and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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