Ellery
Feminine · “Two readings: 'cheerful”
Ellery is given to both — 4,744 girls and 2,261 boys since 1880. See Ellery as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Ellery began as an English surname — one of those family names that traces back to a medieval given name, in this case Hilary. It reached most American ears through fiction: the detective Ellery Queen, created in 1929 by two cousins writing under that shared pen name, whose books and radio show ran for decades. Said aloud it is three light syllables with a familiar English opening, the same El- that starts Eleanor and Ella.
How old is the name Ellery?
Ellery first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Ellery is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,700 people named Ellery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ellery most popular?
Ellery peaked in 2014, reaching #1018 nationally. Today it ranks #1207, 189 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hilarius to Ellery
The story of Ellery
The name lived for centuries in England as a family name, passed down the way surnames are, and crossed the Atlantic with English settlers early enough to become a fixture in New England — where, as American custom allowed, it began appearing as a middle and first name inside families who wanted to keep a mother's maiden line in circulation. Its widest fame came from print: Ellery Queen, both the detective and the pseudonym of his two authors, arrived in 1929 and stayed in American bookshops and on the radio for a long stretch of the twentieth century. That fictional detective was a man, and the surname route has always been open to boys. In current US records, though, Ellery is registered overwhelmingly for girls, part of the broader movement of English surnames into girls' names.
Meaningscholars disagree
Two readings: 'cheerful', or 'from Elleray'
Ellery is a surname before it is a first name, and surname scholarship gives it two roads. One traces it to the medieval English personal name Hilary, from Latin Hilarius, 'cheerful' — the same root as hilarity. The other treats it as a place name, from Elleray in Cumbria. Both are taken seriously, and neither has pushed the other out.
How the name formed
- Hilarius
- Hilary
- Ellery
Related forms: Hilary · Hilaire · Ilario · Hilario · Hilarius
Pronouncing Ellery
EL-uh-ree
Three syllables, stress on the first. Some families say it in two beats, EL-ree, in quick speech. The spelling gives most English speakers no trouble on first sight.
Nicknames for Ellery
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
- 1959
- Most girls named
- 2014256 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1018reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +9.3%188 in 2025, from 172
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.
Ellery in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hilary in English — related form
- Hilaire in French — related form
- Ilario in Italian — related form
- Hilario in Spanish — related form
- Hilarius in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Michigan, Texas.
Ellerys among us
people named Ellery are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,549 born in 2025 was named Ellery
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 Ronni test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ellery's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ronni climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ronni's path sketches the road Ellery is walking now.
Ellery 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 Ellery is headed
Ellery 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.
Ellery beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ellery in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Built from sounds Americans already know — the El- of Eleanor and Ella, the -ery of Emery — so it is rarely misheard as a whole.
- Comes with Ellie ready-made, a short form already in heavy independent use.
- A genuine English surname with centuries behind it, not a recent coinage.
- Spelled the way it sounds; one dominant spelling, without competing variants to correct.
- It sits inside a crowded sound family. Ellery is uncommon, but Ellie, Ella, Eleanor, Emery and Avery are not, and the nickname route can pull a child straight into that pool.
- The surname is open to boys, and the best-known fictional Ellery is male — so occasional assumptions about sex on paper are likely, though US records now lean strongly female.
- Expect it to be confused in speech with Emery and Hillary, and to be spelled Ellory or Ellerie now and then by people writing it down for the first time.
- Its use as a girls' first name is recent rather than long-established, so there is no older generation of Ellerys to make it instantly recognizable.
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What they receive
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Ellery
Feminine · #1207 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ellerys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,700 people named Ellery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ellery in 2025?
- Ellery ranks #1207 among US girl names in 2025, with 188 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ellery?
- About 1 in every 8,549 US girls born in 2025 was named Ellery — 188 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ellery with classmates?
- Ellery will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ellery
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Esperanza#1207 · Sandra#1207 · Anneliese#1207 · Yaneli#1204 · Annalee#1204 · Wrenly#1204 · Tala#1211 · Vida#1211
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ellery? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ellery and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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