Ilijah
Masculine · “My God is Yahweh”
Ilijah is Elijah with the first vowel changed, and the change is a real one: the prophet's Hebrew name begins with the divine element ʾēl, so the E is carrying meaning, and an I is not. It also brings the spelling closer to the Slavic Ilija.
How old is the name Ilijah?
Ilijah first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Ilijah alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 600 people named Ilijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ilijah most popular?
Ilijah peaked in 2012, reaching #3371 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 2,028 places below that high. See the whole 2012 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ʾĒlīyyāhū to Ilijah
The story of Ilijah
Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Carmel, is fed by ravens, hears God in a still small voice and is taken up in a whirlwind; Jewish tradition expects his return, and a cup is set for him at every Passover seder. The name was ordinary among English Puritans and revived enormously in America from the 1990s, entering the top ten. That climb produced respellings, and Elijha, Elijiah, Ellijah and Ilijah all appear behind it. Ilijah's peak in 2012 sits inside the parent name's own high period, which is where variants usually crest.
Meaning
My God is Yahweh
From Hebrew ʾĒlīyyāhū, from ʾēl, God, and Yāhū, a form of the divine name — a declaration that the God of Israel is the true God, which is precisely the argument the prophet has with the priests of Baal. The reading is settled. The Ilijah spelling is an American variant; the Slavic Ilija and Ilya descend from the Greek Ēlias by a different road and arrive at a similar look.
How the name formed
- ʾĒlīyyāhū
- Elias
- Elijah
- Ilijah
Related forms: אֵלִיָּהוּ · Ilija · Ilya · Ilyas · Ilias
Pronouncing Ilijah
ee-LY-juh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, identical to Elijah. The opening vowel is reduced in both spellings, which is why the variant exists.
Nicknames for Ilijah
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
- 1996
- Most boys named
- 201232 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3371reached in 2012
- Change vs 2024
- −22.7%17 in 2025, from 22
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.
Ilijah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אֵלִיָּהוּ in Hebrew — related form
- Ilija in Serbian — related form
- Ilya in Russian — related form
- Ilyas in Arabic — related form
- Ilias in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Ilijahs among us
people named Ilijah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Ilijah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ilijah
- #5399
- Ilijah on the 2025 chart
- #906
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ilijah went to 17 boys in 2025, but Ilija is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 22, which makes it the 906th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,493 places above the chart.
- Ilijah17
- Ilija5
About 1 boy in 77,640 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,475 for Ilijah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Arrington test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ilijah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Arrington climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Arrington's path sketches the road Ilijah is walking now.
Ilijah 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
Ilijah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ilijah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and among the most emphatic any name carries.
- Eli is a popular and immediate short form.
- It carries one of the major figures of the Hebrew Bible.
- Elijah is the standard spelling and will be written for it.
- The E of Elijah carries the word for God, and the I does not.
- Elijah is so common that any variant reads as a misspelling of it.
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What they receive
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Ilijah
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ilijahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Ilijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ilijah?
- Ilijah is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 22 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ilija.
- How popular is the name Ilijah in 2025?
- Ilijah ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ilijah?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Ilijah — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ilijah with classmates?
- Ilijah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ilijah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ilijah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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