Elsa
Feminine · “God is my oath”
Elsa is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 30,710 girls against 21 boys since 1880.
Elsa began as a German short form of Elisabeth and grew comfortable enough to stand on its own, which is how it crossed the Atlantic — already independent, already complete at two syllables. Wagner gave the name to the heroine of his opera Lohengrin in the mid-nineteenth century, and it has been at home in German, Swedish and Italian mouths ever since. It has been on American records for as long as American records have existed.
How old is the name Elsa?
Elsa was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Elsa alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 22,500 people named Elsa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elsa most popular?
Elsa peaked in 1895, reaching #215 nationally. Today it ranks #1104, 889 places below that high. See the whole 1895 chart.
Elsa appears on these lists:
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Elsa
The story of Elsa
The root is the Hebrew name Elisheva, carried into Greek as Elisabet by the translators of the Hebrew Bible and then across Europe as Elisabeth. German speakers clipped it down to Elsa, and Scandinavians did the same, until the short form stopped behaving like a nickname and became a given name in its own right. Wagner's Lohengrin, first staged in the mid-nineteenth century, put an Elsa of Brabant on opera stages across Europe and America. It reached the United States with German and Scandinavian families and has been recorded here continuously since the earliest national name counts.
Meaning
God is my oath
Elsa inherits its meaning from Elisabeth, which goes back to the Hebrew Elisheva.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elisabet
- Elisabeth
- Else
- Elsa
Related forms: Elsa · Elsa · Else · Elza · Ilse · Elsie
Pronouncing Elsa
EL-sah
Two syllables, stress on the first. German and Swedish speakers often voice the s, closer to EL-zah; both are heard in the United States and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Elsa
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 2013 — Frozen
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 2013566 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #215reached in 1895
- Change vs 2022
- −18.2%216 in 2025, from 264
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.
Elsa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elsa in German — same name
- Elsa in Swedish — same name
- Else in Danish — spelling variant
- Elza in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Ilse in German — related form
- Elsie in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Elsas among us
people named Elsa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,441 born in 2025 was named Elsa
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
Elsa 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 Elsa is headed
Elsa should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Elsa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elsa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and spelled the way it sounds — four letters that almost no one has to ask about twice.
- Identical or near-identical in German, Swedish, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, so it travels without translation.
- Part of the Elisabeth family, which gives it a long documented line and ready-made alternatives like Elsie if a longer or softer form is wanted later.
- Recorded in the United States since the beginning of national name statistics, without ever disappearing.
- Disney's Frozen gave the name to its ice-queen heroine, and for children and parents who grew up with that film the association is immediate and loud. It fades with time, but it will come up in the early years.
- The s is voiced by some speakers and not by others, so Elsa will hear both EL-sah and EL-zah and may end up choosing which one to answer to.
- It sits close to Elsie, Elise, Ella and Elle, all in circulation, so occasional mix-ups on forms and roll calls are likely.
- Still strongly represented among older generations in the United States, which means it may read as a grandmother's name to some ears and as entirely fresh to others.
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Elsa
Feminine · #1104 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elsas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,500 people named Elsa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elsa in 2025?
- Elsa ranks #1104 among US girl names in 2025, with 216 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elsa?
- About 1 in every 7,441 US girls born in 2025 was named Elsa — 216 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elsa with classmates?
- Elsa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Elsa's chart?
- Elsa climbed after 2013 — Frozen.
Ranked beside Elsa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lianna#1104 · Tatiana#1104 · Marian#1102 · Ivana#1102 · Sia#1107 · Kamora#1108 · Ines#1109 · Erika#1109
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elsa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elsa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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