Elija
Elija was given to 14 boys in 2025, #6,213 among boys’ names; 1,169 Americans have been recorded with it since 1889 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,060 Americans named Elija and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 12 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Elija by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Elija mean?
Wiktionary, Yoruba section
Elija is “a male given name originating from the Bible”
Borrowed from English Elijah.
/è.lí.d͡ʒà/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Yoruba section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Elija?
#6,213 among boys’ names, 2025
Elija fell from #2,777 in 2015 to #6,213 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 22.4 to 8.2 per million.
56 babies in 2008, the peak
Elija peaked in 2008, when 56 boys were given it, #2,331 among boys’ names. The 14 births of 2025 are 25% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | #6,213 | 8.2 |
| 2024 | 12 | #6,944 | 7.0 |
| 2023 | 20 | #4,927 | 11.7 |
| 2022 | 20 | #4,897 | 11.5 |
| 2021 | 29 | #3,756 | 16.6 |
| 2020 | 24 | #4,172 | 13.9 |
| 2019 | 25 | #4,142 | 13.9 |
| 2018 | 20 | #4,789 | 11.0 |
| 2017 | 33 | #3,397 | 17.8 |
| 2016 | 26 | #4,023 | 13.7 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 43 | #2,777 | 22.4 |
| 2014 | 21 | #4,584 | 10.9 |
| 2013 | 27 | #3,780 | 14.3 |
| 2012 | 44 | #2,731 | 23.2 |
| 2011 | 47 | #2,595 | 24.7 |
| 2010 | 42 | #2,836 | 21.9 |
| 2009 | 48 | #2,593 | 24.2 |
| 2008 | 56 | #2,331 | 27.4 |
| 2007 | 49 | #2,544 | 23.6 |
| 2006 | 41 | #2,799 | 19.9 |
| 2005 | 38 | #2,810 | 19.0 |
| 2004 | 49 | #2,320 | 24.7 |
| 2003 | 32 | #3,006 | 16.2 |
| 2002 | 46 | #2,260 | 23.7 |
| 2001 | 29 | #3,081 | 14.9 |
| 2000 | 26 | #3,229 | 13.2 |
| 1999 | 21 | #3,615 | 10.9 |
| 1998 | 17 | #4,061 | 8.9 |
| 1997 | 23 | #3,191 | 12.2 |
| 1996 | 17 | #3,874 | 9.0 |
| 1995 | 16 | #3,915 | 8.4 |
| 1994 | 8 | #6,533 | 4.1 |
| 1993 | 17 | #3,703 | 8.7 |
| 1992 | 11 | #4,977 | 5.5 |
| 1991 | 5 | #8,590 | 2.5 |
| 1990 | 7 | #6,626 | 3.4 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,794 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,657 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 9 | #4,667 | 4.8 |
| 1986 | 8 | #4,995 | 4.3 |
| 1985 | 8 | #4,825 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,674 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 5 | #6,542 | 2.8 |
| 1981 | 7 | #5,091 | 3.9 |
| 1980 | 9 | #4,244 | 5.0 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,743 | 4.3 |
| 1931 | 5 | #3,933 | 4.8 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,159 | 4.6 |
| 1928 | 10 | #2,716 | 9.0 |
| 1924 | 5 | #4,530 | 4.4 |
| 1923 | 7 | #3,575 | 6.4 |
| 1922 | 7 | #3,618 | 6.4 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,536 | 4.5 |
| 1918 | 12 | #2,437 | 11.8 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,018 | 8.6 |
| 1915 | 9 | #2,686 | 10.6 |
| 1914 | 6 | #3,005 | 9.2 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,333 | 13.7 |
| 1889 | 5 | #1,012 | 45.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Elija a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Elija has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 59 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Elija: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Elija, and how old are they?
1,060 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 91% of the 1,169 Americans ever recorded as Elija. The median Elija alive today is 18 years old; half are between 12 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 1,623 people named Elija (73 women and girls, 1,550 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 955 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Elija 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 | 1 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 15 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 134 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 599 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 312 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 388,200 babies since 1880, Elija is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 14 of their 11,214 babies (<1%), again the third 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 Elija
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 Elija and names like it
- Compare Elija and ElijahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sElija peaked in 2008.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elija since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Elija.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Elija alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with EMost given first.