Elli
Feminine · “my God is an oath”
Elli is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,763 girls against 35 boys since 1880.
Elli is a Finnish and German short form that stopped needing its long name a long time ago. It comes off Elisabeth or Eleonora, and Finnish in particular treats short forms as full names on the certificate.
How old is the name Elli?
Elli first appears in US birth records in 1955 — 70 years ago. The typical Elli alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 2,700 people named Elli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elli most popular?
Elli peaked in 2014, reaching #1728 nationally. Today it ranks #2957, 1,229 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Elli
The story of Elli
Finnish and German naming produce short forms freely and then register them: Elli, Ella, Elsa, Elsie and Ellen all come off the same long names and all became independent. Finland in particular has used Elli as a full given name for well over a century. Greek has an unrelated Elli, which in mythology is a girl who falls from a golden ram into the strait that took her name, the Hellespont. Both roads reach American records, the Finnish and German one much more often.
Meaningscholars disagree
my God is an oath — through Elisabeth
Elisabeth is Hebrew Elisheva, El, 'God', with sheva, which carries both oath and the number seven. That reading is documented. But Elli also serves as a short form of Eleonora, whose own meaning has never been settled, and Greek has a separate Elli of its own. Which long name a particular Elli stands on is a family fact rather than a linguistic one.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elisabeth
- Elli
Related forms: Elli · Elli · Ellie · Elli
Pronouncing Elli
EL-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, the doubled l held slightly longer in Finnish than English manages. Said the same as the English Ellie; the spelling is the only difference.
Nicknames for Elli
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
- 1955
- Most girls named
- 2010112 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1728reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%56 in 2025, from 56
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.
Elli in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elli in Finnish — same name
- Elli in German — same name
- Ellie in English — spelling variant
- Elli in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Ellis among us
people named Elli are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 28,701 born in 2025 was named Elli
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elli
- #2957
- Elli on the 2025 chart
- #726
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elli went to 56 girls in 2025, but Elly, Eli and Ely are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 236, which makes it the 726th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,231 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 6,810 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 28,701 for Elli 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 Briauna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elli's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Briauna climbed just as high around 1994, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Briauna's path sketches the road Elli is walking now.
Elli 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 Elli is headed
Elli 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.
Elli beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elli in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Elisabeth and Eleonora both stand behind it as full formal names if one is wanted.
- Four letters, two syllables, and said correctly by everyone at first sight.
- In genuine full use in Finland and Germany rather than only as a shortening.
- Ellie is the standard English spelling and this one will be corrected in writing.
- Elli, Ellie, Elly and Ella all circulate and are constantly confused.
- It is short enough to read as a nickname on official documents.
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What they receive
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Elli
Feminine · #2957 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ellis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Elli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elli?
- Elli is one of 4 recorded spellings. Elly is the more common one — 129 births in 2025 against 56 for Elli.
- How popular is the name Elli in 2025?
- Elli ranks #2957 among US girl names in 2025, with 56 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elli?
- About 1 in every 28,701 US girls born in 2025 was named Elli — 56 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elli with classmates?
- Elli will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elli
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Klaire#2957 · Pauline#2957 · Alea#2957 · Odelia#2957 · Rahaf#2957 · Rosabella#2957 · Kenzlee#2957 · Kalli#2957
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elli? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elli and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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