Ela
Ela was given to 135 girls in 2025, #1,562 among girls’ names; 2,846 Americans have been recorded with it since 1887 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,500 Americans named Ela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (88% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ela mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ela is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ela?
#1,562 among girls’ names, 2025
Ela rose from #2,000 in 2015 to #1,562 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 55.5 to 84.0 per million.
150 babies in 2018, the peak
Ela peaked in 2018, when 150 girls were given it, #1,465 among girls’ names. The 135 births of 2025 are 90% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 135 | #1,562 | 84.0 |
| 2024 | 118 | #1,723 | 72.8 |
| 2023 | 110 | #1,828 | 68.6 |
| 2022 | 99 | #1,977 | 60.4 |
| 2021 | 118 | #1,743 | 71.9 |
| 2020 | 119 | #1,706 | 73.6 |
| 2019 | 136 | #1,573 | 81.0 |
| 2018 | 150 | #1,465 | 88.2 |
| 2017 | 115 | #1,805 | 66.6 |
| 2016 | 100 | #1,987 | 56.4 |
Every recorded year (87)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 99 | #2,000 | 55.5 |
| 2014 | 104 | #1,928 | 58.2 |
| 2013 | 98 | #1,993 | 55.8 |
| 2012 | 117 | #1,764 | 66.4 |
| 2011 | 116 | #1,759 | 65.9 |
| 2010 | 117 | #1,764 | 65.8 |
| 2009 | 100 | #2,047 | 54.4 |
| 2008 | 69 | #2,668 | 36.5 |
| 2007 | 73 | #2,546 | 38.0 |
| 2006 | 68 | #2,644 | 35.8 |
| 2005 | 78 | #2,299 | 42.2 |
| 2004 | 44 | #3,406 | 24.0 |
| 2003 | 44 | #3,306 | 24.1 |
| 2002 | 13 | #7,956 | 7.2 |
| 2001 | 18 | #6,143 | 10.0 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,271 | 7.7 |
| 1999 | 12 | #7,862 | 6.8 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,155 | 6.2 |
| 1997 | 6 | #12,550 | 3.4 |
| 1996 | 10 | #8,336 | 5.7 |
| 1995 | 6 | #12,215 | 3.4 |
| 1993 | 7 | #10,911 | 3.9 |
| 1992 | 8 | #9,737 | 4.3 |
| 1991 | 8 | #9,574 | 4.3 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,509 | 4.2 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,538 | 3.9 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,046 | 4.0 |
| 1984 | 5 | #10,874 | 3.0 |
| 1983 | 5 | #10,742 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 6 | #8,745 | 3.9 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,476 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,624 | 3.3 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,069 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 8 | #4,983 | 4.1 |
| 1960 | 5 | #6,629 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,604 | 3.0 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,466 | 6.7 |
| 1935 | 7 | #3,501 | 6.7 |
| 1932 | 7 | #3,669 | 6.6 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,584 | 6.6 |
| 1930 | 11 | #2,737 | 9.8 |
| 1929 | 10 | #2,984 | 9.0 |
| 1928 | 11 | #2,823 | 9.5 |
| 1927 | 8 | #3,633 | 6.7 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,452 | 5.1 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,448 | 7.4 |
| 1924 | 5 | #5,284 | 4.0 |
| 1923 | 11 | #2,976 | 9.1 |
| 1922 | 6 | #4,600 | 5.0 |
| 1921 | 9 | #3,483 | 7.3 |
| 1920 | 13 | #2,628 | 10.8 |
| 1919 | 12 | #2,692 | 10.6 |
| 1918 | 8 | #3,595 | 6.9 |
| 1917 | 9 | #3,160 | 8.3 |
| 1916 | 13 | #2,405 | 12.4 |
| 1915 | 9 | #2,962 | 9.1 |
| 1914 | 12 | #2,044 | 15.8 |
| 1912 | 6 | #2,726 | 10.8 |
| 1911 | 7 | #2,021 | 16.7 |
| 1909 | 7 | #1,816 | 20.2 |
| 1906 | 7 | #1,603 | 23.7 |
| 1905 | 6 | #1,762 | 20.6 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,714 | 21.8 |
| 1903 | 14 | #942 | 53.4 |
| 1902 | 9 | #1,244 | 34.1 |
| 1901 | 6 | #1,535 | 25.1 |
| 1900 | 7 | #1,616 | 23.4 |
| 1899 | 5 | #1,667 | 21.5 |
| 1898 | 13 | #976 | 50.2 |
| 1897 | 9 | #1,102 | 38.4 |
| 1896 | 7 | #1,328 | 29.4 |
| 1893 | 5 | #1,487 | 23.5 |
| 1892 | 5 | #1,514 | 23.5 |
| 1891 | 6 | #1,243 | 32.3 |
| 1889 | 7 | #1,051 | 39.2 |
| 1888 | 7 | #1,065 | 39.2 |
| 1887 | 5 | #1,187 | 34.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 87 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ela, and how old are they?
2,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 88% of the 2,846 Americans ever recorded as Ela. The median Ela alive today is 11 years old; half are between 6 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 2,795 people named Ela (2,750 women and girls, 45 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,850 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Ela rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 16 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 20 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 69 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 892 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,490 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ela born?
The states with the most babies named Ela are Florida, California and New York, with 58% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 23 | #721 | 1.3× |
| California | 17 | #1,376 | 1.0× |
| New York | 14 | #1,043 | 1.5× |
| Illinois | 10 | #866 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 8 | #2,463 | 0.7× |
| Massachusetts | 6 | #792 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,227 | 1.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,452 | 0.3× |
| Connecticut | 5 | #558 | 0.2× |
Where Ela is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ela is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1910 it was given 1.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ela with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 441,256 babies since 1880, Ela is the sixth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 135 of their 7,241 babies (1.9%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ela
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ela and names like it
- Compare Ela and EllaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sEla peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ela since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Ela.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ela alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.