Ellsworth
Masculine · “Elli's enclosure”
Ellsworth is Elli's enclosure — a Cambridgeshire place name, then a surname, and then a first name given a sharp push by the first Union officer killed in the American Civil War.
How old is the name Ellsworth?
Ellsworth was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ellsworth alive today was born around 1923, making them about 102 years old. About 1,200 people named Ellsworth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ellsworth most popular?
Ellsworth peaked in 1895, reaching #295 nationally. See the whole 1895 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elli + worth to Ellsworth
The story of Ellsworth
Elsworth in Cambridgeshire is recorded from the tenth century, and families from it carried the surname. Elmer Ellsworth was a young colonel and a friend of Lincoln's who was shot in Alexandria in May 1861 while taking down a Confederate flag; he was the first Union officer killed in the war and was mourned nationally. The registers show a sharp rise in the name immediately afterwards, and it peaked around 1885.
Meaning
Elli's enclosure
From an Old English personal name, generally read as Elli, plus worth, 'enclosure' or 'homestead'. The worth element is one of the standard English place-name endings, alongside -ton, -ley and -ham, and it describes a fenced holding rather than a village.
How the name formed
- Elli + worth
- Elsworth
- Ellsworth
Related forms: Elsworth · Ellesworth
Pronouncing Ellsworth
ELZ-wurth
Two syllables, stress on the first. Both elements are ordinary and neither is said unexpectedly.
Nicknames for Ellsworth
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1918300 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #295reached in 1895
- Change vs 2018
- −16.7%5 in 2024, 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.
Ellsworth in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elsworth in English — spelling variant
- Ellesworth in English — spelling variant
Ellsworths among us
people named Ellsworth are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Ellsworth has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A documented English place name with a transparent second element.
- It carries a specific and traceable piece of American Civil War history.
- Worth is available as a short form with an unusually good meaning of its own.
- It reads as a surname to many people, which is what it was for a thousand years.
- It is a long, formal-sounding name and is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth century.
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Ellsworth
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Ellsworths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Ellsworth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ellsworth in 2025?
- Ellsworth is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Ellsworth with classmates?
- Ellsworth will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Edward#224 · Eric#273 · Ethan#24 · Eugene#943 · Elijah#7 · Ernest#1038 · Earl#2230 · Evan#153
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ellsworth? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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