Ellwood
Masculine · “the elder wood”
The tree in this name was one people were careful with. Elder had a reputation across northern Europe: you did not cut it without asking, because something lived in it, and woodsmen would speak to the tree first and wait before putting an axe to it. Furniture made of elder was avoided and cradles emphatically so.
How old is the name Ellwood?
Ellwood first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Ellwood alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 300 people named Ellwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ellwood most popular?
Ellwood peaked in 1901, reaching #596 nationally. See the whole 1901 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ellwood to Ellwood
The story of Ellwood
The doubled letter belongs to the place and the single one to the name. Elwood with one l is the commoner given name in America; Ellwood with two is the older English place-name spelling and the form several villages still use. So the version with the extra letter, which looks like an American elaboration, is actually the more conservative of the two — it is the given name that simplified, not the place name that doubled. That happens more often than the usual story about respellings allows: the fussier-looking form is quite frequently the one that stayed put.
Meaning
the elder wood
Two Old English elements, the tree and the wood. Several places carry the compound, which is why the surname is scattered rather than descending from one family.
How the name formed
- Ellwood
- Elwood
Pronouncing Ellwood
EL-wuud
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled l changes nothing audible; both spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Ellwood
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 191882 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #596reached in 1901
- Change vs 2017
- +40.0%7 in 2021, from 5
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.
Ellwoods among us
people named Ellwood 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
Ellwood 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
- The meaning is concrete and easy to explain to a child.
- Woody works as a short form and sounds nothing like the full name.
- It belongs to the surname-name tradition without being a common example.
- Elwood is the commoner spelling and this one gets corrected.
- The generation that used it is now very old.
- It is long for what it says and most people will shorten it.
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Ellwood
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Ellwoods are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Ellwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ellwood in 2025?
- Ellwood is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Ellwood with classmates?
- Ellwood 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 Ellwood? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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