Elif
Elif was given to 101 girls in 2025, #1,915 among girls’ names; 1,534 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,520 Americans named Elif and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 4 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Elif by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Elif mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Elif is “a female given name from Arabic” Its etymology gives the sense “alif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet” (أَلِف).
From Arabic أَلِف (ʔalif, “alif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet”), itself cognate with Ancient Greek ἄλφα (álpha).
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Elif?
#1,915 among girls’ names, 2025
Elif rose from #3,146 in 2015 to #1,915 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 29.7 to 62.8 per million.
115 babies in 2024, the peak
Elif peaked in 2024, when 115 girls were given it, #1,755 among girls’ names. The 101 births of 2025 are 88% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 101 | #1,915 | 62.8 |
| 2024 | 115 | #1,755 | 71.0 |
| 2023 | 90 | #2,129 | 56.1 |
| 2022 | 106 | #1,900 | 64.6 |
| 2021 | 85 | #2,191 | 51.8 |
| 2020 | 81 | #2,222 | 50.1 |
| 2019 | 52 | #3,101 | 31.0 |
| 2018 | 65 | #2,654 | 38.2 |
| 2017 | 68 | #2,580 | 39.4 |
| 2016 | 69 | #2,572 | 38.9 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 53 | #3,146 | 29.7 |
| 2014 | 75 | #2,423 | 42.0 |
| 2013 | 54 | #3,052 | 30.8 |
| 2012 | 59 | #2,911 | 33.5 |
| 2011 | 46 | #3,462 | 26.2 |
| 2010 | 48 | #3,374 | 27.0 |
| 2009 | 38 | #4,037 | 20.7 |
| 2008 | 36 | #4,296 | 19.0 |
| 2007 | 32 | #4,594 | 16.6 |
| 2006 | 27 | #5,128 | 14.2 |
| 2005 | 23 | #5,486 | 12.4 |
| 2004 | 9 | #10,945 | 4.9 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,701 | 7.7 |
| 2002 | 12 | #8,435 | 6.7 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,347 | 5.0 |
| 2000 | 9 | #10,133 | 5.0 |
| 1999 | 13 | #7,356 | 7.3 |
| 1998 | 15 | #6,465 | 8.5 |
| 1997 | 16 | #5,956 | 9.2 |
| 1996 | 5 | #14,157 | 2.9 |
| 1995 | 10 | #8,265 | 5.7 |
| 1994 | 15 | #6,075 | 8.4 |
| 1993 | 7 | #10,918 | 3.9 |
| 1992 | 14 | #6,399 | 7.6 |
| 1991 | 7 | #10,606 | 3.7 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,517 | 4.2 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,000 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 5 | #12,362 | 2.8 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,225 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 6 | #9,885 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,413 | 4.2 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,360 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 5 | #10,837 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 6 | #8,753 | 3.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Elif a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Elif has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 44 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Elif: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Elif, and how old are they?
1,520 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,534 Americans ever recorded as Elif. The median Elif alive today is 10 years old; half are between 4 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 1,643 people named Elif (1,625 women and girls, 18 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 968 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 10 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 100 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 402 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,010 |
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 Elif born?
The states with the most babies named Elif are New York, Florida and Texas, with 56% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 16 | #953 | 2.5× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,189 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 9 | #2,271 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,141 | 0.3× |
| California | 6 | #2,872 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,291 | 0.6× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,229 | 2.5× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,099 | 0.3× |
Where Elif is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Elif is most over-represented in New York: since 1977 it was given 2.5 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 Elif 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,738 babies since 1880, Elif is the most given (88% of them). In 2025 it was given to 101 of their 135 babies (75%), again the most given.
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 Elif
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 Elif and names like it
- Compare Elif and ElafBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sElif peaked in 2024.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elif since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Elif: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Elif.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Elif alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.