Elon
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “oak or terebinth (Hebrew)”
Elon is given to both — 3,121 boys and 512 girls since 1880. See Elon as a girl 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 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Elon is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,800 people named Elon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elon most popular?
Elon peaked in 1885, reaching #936 nationally. Today it ranks #1778, 842 places below that high. See the whole 1885 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
- 1885
- Most boys named
- 2021234 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #936reached in 1885
- Change vs 2023
- −27.4%90 in 2025, from 124
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, New York.
Elons among us
people named Elon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 18,979 born in 2025 was named Elon
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Elon 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 Elon is headed
Elon should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Elon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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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What they receive
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Elon
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #1778 in the U.S.
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 2,800 people named Elon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elon in 2025?
- Elon ranks #1778 among US boy names in 2025, with 90 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elon?
- About 1 in every 18,979 US boys born in 2025 was named Elon — 90 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elon with classmates?
- Elon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Haroon#1778 · Jamarion#1778 · Xion#1778 · Irving#1778 · Edrick#1778 · Xyleek#1778 · Marlin#1778 · Makhi#1778
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elon and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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