Elston
Masculine · “Old English”
Elston is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,120 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Elston Howard was the first Black player to wear a Yankee uniform, eight years after Jackie Robinson, and the American League's most valuable player in 1963. The name's peak sits in the middle of his career.
How old is the name Elston?
Elston first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Elston alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 700 people named Elston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elston most popular?
Elston peaked in 1961, reaching #1108 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 9,587 places below that high. See the whole 1961 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ellastun to Elston
The story of Elston
The Yankees were the last team in the American League to integrate. Howard signed in 1955, played catcher and outfield, won the most valuable player award in 1963 and was the first Black player to do so in that league; he later became one of the first Black coaches in the majors. His first name was unusual enough that its appearance in the birth records of the late 1950s and early 1960s is legible: it rises with his career and falls after it, in the way that a surname carried by one prominent person usually does. The name itself is an ordinary English place name, a farmstead belonging to a man whose own name has not survived except inside it.
Meaningscholars disagree
Old English, Ella's farmstead
Elston is an English place name and surname, generally from a personal name such as Ella or Elli with tun, a farmstead. Different Elstons have different first elements. The American peak of the given name is 1961.
How the name formed
- Ellastun
- Elston
Related forms: Elliston
Pronouncing Elston
EL-stun
Two syllables, stress on the first, the second reduced to a schwa.
Nicknames for Elston
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
- 1911
- Most boys named
- 196150 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1108reached in 1961
- Change vs 2022
- −25.0%6 in 2025, from 8
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.
Elston in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elliston in English — related form
Elstons among us
people named Elston are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Elston
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Geraldine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elston's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Geraldine climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Geraldine's path sketches the road Elston is walking now.
Elston 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
Elston beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elston in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and six letters, spelled as heard.
- It is rare without being invented.
- El works as a short form.
- It reads as a surname to most Americans.
- It will be heard as Elton or Weston.
- The 1961 peak dates it closely.
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Elston
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elstons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Elston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elston in 2025?
- Elston ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elston?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Elston — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elston with classmates?
- Elston will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elston
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695 · Osborn#10695 · Hannibal#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elston? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elston and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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