Elon
Feminine · Hebrew roots · “oak or terebinth (Hebrew)”
Elon is given to both — 512 girls and 3,121 boys since 1880. See Elon as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Elon is a Hebrew name meaning oak, or terebinth, one of the great trees of the land of Israel. The Bible gives it to three men, among them a judge of Israel, and a college in North Carolina took it from the oaks around its first building.
How old is the name Elon?
Elon first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Elon alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 400 people named Elon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elon most popular?
Elon peaked in 1904, reaching #1659 nationally. See the whole 1904 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elon (Hebrew) to Elon
The story of Elon
Elon appears three times in the Hebrew Bible. Genesis names Elon the Hittite, whose daughter married Esau, and Elon, one of the sons of Zebulun. The Book of Judges gives two verses to Elon the Zebulunite, who judged Israel for ten years and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun; nothing more is told of him. In the late nineteenth century a church college in North Carolina was named Elon because it was built in a grove of oaks, and the town that grew around it took the same name.
Meaning
oak or terebinth (Hebrew)
From Hebrew Elon, a word for a large tree. Translations give oak or terebinth, a tree of the pistachio family; the related Hebrew name Alon is the ordinary word for an oak.
How the name formed
- ElonHebrew
- ElonEnglish Bibles
Related forms: Eilon · Alon
Pronouncing Elon
EE-lon
English usually says EE-lon. In Hebrew it is closer to ay-LOHN, with the stress on the second syllable.
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 199921 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1659reached in 1904
- Change vs 2020
- 0.0%5 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.
Elon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eilon in Hebrew — transliteration
- Alon in Hebrew — related form
Elons among us
people named Elon 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
Elon 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
- A biblical name with a clear, settled meaning.
- Two syllables and four letters, easy to spell.
- Its roots are easy to show: three biblical bearers and a university named for the same kind of tree.
- Today the name is strongly associated with one prominent living businessman, and most people will mention him. How that lands varies from listener to listener and can shift over a lifetime; the name's Hebrew history stands apart from it.
- English and Hebrew stress it differently, so the child will hear both EE-lon and ay-LOHN.
- A real minority of the children given it are girls. In Hebrew it is a masculine name, so a girl called Elon will often be taken for a boy on paper.
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Elon
Feminine · Hebrew roots
Frequently asked
- How many Elons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Elon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elon in 2025?
- Elon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Elon with classmates?
- Elon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elon? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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