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NameAlmanac

Elizabeth

Girls’ name Recorded 1880-2025

Elizabeth was given to 6,760 girls in 2025, #17 among girls’ names; 1,693,973 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).

An estimated 1.13 million Americans named Elizabeth and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (67% of everyone recorded); the median is 43 years old and half are between 28 and 62.

Elizabeth is the #3 most common first name among living American women and girls, by this estimate.

Babies named Elizabeth each year, first recorded in 1880
Elizabeth, 1880-2025; highest in 1990.5k10k15k20k25k188019001920194019601980200020251990 peak: 20,841
Elizabeth, 1880-2025; highest in 1990.5k10k15k20k25k188019001920194019601980200020251990 peak: 20,841
Elizabeth, 1880-2025; highest in 1990.5k10k15k20k25k18801905193019551980200520251990 peak: 20,841
Elizabeth, 1880-2025; highest in 1990.5k10k15k20k25k18801930198020251990 peak: 20,841

Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).

Elizabeth or ElisabethNames of the 1990sNames in New York

Births of Elizabeth by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.

What does Elizabeth mean?

Wiktionary, English section

Elizabeth is “a female given name from Hebrew, popular since the 16th century.” Its etymology gives the sense “my God is an oath” (אלישבע).

From Middle English Elizabeth, from the Ancient Greek Ἐλισάβετ (Elisábet), a transliteration of the Old Testament Biblical Hebrew אלישבע (ʔĕlîšeḇaʕ, “my God is an oath”). See El and שבועה. Doublet of Elisheba and Isabel.

/ɪˈlɪzəbəθ/

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary, entry Elizabeth (English), CC BY‑SA 4.0. Quoted from the entry; text after a cross-reference to another sense is left out.

Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).

How popular is Elizabeth?

#17 among girls’ names, 2025

Elizabeth fell from #13 in 2015 to #17 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 5.5 to 4.2 per 1,000.

20,841 babies in 1990, the peak

Elizabeth peaked in 1990, when 20,841 babies were given it (20,750 girls, #9 among girls’ names). The 6,765 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 32% of that peak.

Elizabeth by year
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 girls
20256,760#174.2
20246,924#174.3
20236,616#154.1
20227,020#154.3
20217,265#144.4
20207,308#164.5
20197,923#144.7
20188,600#135.1
20179,004#135.2
20169,607#135.4
Every recorded year (146)
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 girls
20159,771#135.5
20149,600#135.4
20139,476#105.4
20129,730#105.5
201110,109#115.7
201010,283#125.8
200911,057#116.0
200812,027#96.4
200713,071#106.8
200612,440#116.5
200512,743#116.9
200413,577#107.4
200314,123#97.7
200214,621#118.1
200114,792#98.2
200015,117#98.3
199915,350#108.7
199815,193#108.6
199715,430#98.9
199616,003#109.1
199516,192#109.2
199416,786#99.4
199317,559#99.7
199219,035#910.3
199120,395#910.9
199020,750#910.9
198920,298#1011.0
198820,042#1011.3
198718,608#1010.7
198619,074#1011.1
198520,545#911.9
198420,360#1012.1
198319,842#1011.9
198220,506#812.1
198120,168#912.1
198019,529#911.8
197918,073#1111.3
197816,807#1411.0
197716,431#1310.7
197613,547#169.2
197512,472#158.6
197412,259#128.4
197312,360#138.5
197212,182#158.0
197113,606#198.2
197015,108#188.6
196915,297#169.1
196814,887#179.1
196716,116#139.8
196615,887#169.4
196516,321#169.2
196417,294#169.1
196317,598#209.1
196217,806#209.1
196118,855#199.3
196018,859#189.3
195918,421#219.1
195818,535#229.2
195717,492#228.6
195616,355#228.1
195516,696#218.5
195416,584#208.5
195316,099#218.6
195216,022#228.6
195115,118#238.4
195014,334#248.4
194913,714#258.0
194813,215#267.8
194713,440#257.6
194611,753#257.5
194510,343#267.9
194411,034#238.3
194311,644#238.3
194211,186#228.3
194110,267#218.5
19409,955#208.7
19399,709#188.9
19389,803#178.9
19379,385#178.8
19368,860#188.5
19359,075#178.7
19349,346#189.0
19339,016#178.9
19329,999#179.4
193110,292#169.7
193010,995#159.8
192911,248#1510.1
192811,767#1410.2
192712,523#1310.5
192612,837#1110.8
192513,936#1011.4
192414,950#1112.0
192315,459#912.8
192215,244#912.7
192115,800#1012.8
192015,908#813.3
191915,287#813.5
191815,853#913.7
191715,131#814.0
191614,940#814.3
191514,103#814.3
191411,367#814.9
19139,505#815.2
19128,527#815.3
19116,298#715.1
19105,800#714.6
19095,176#714.9
19084,904#714.7
19074,624#714.5
19064,320#714.6
19054,121#614.1
19043,833#613.9
19033,724#614.2
19023,694#614.0
19013,216#613.4
19004,096#613.7
18993,287#714.1
18983,659#714.1
18973,442#614.7
18963,471#714.6
18953,603#515.4
18943,425#515.4
18933,360#515.8
18923,461#316.3
18913,059#416.5
18903,112#316.3
18893,058#317.1
18883,224#318.0
18872,681#318.4
18862,680#418.5
18852,582#419.4
18842,549#419.8
18832,255#420.1
18822,186#420.3
18811,852#420.1
18801,939#421.3

Download Elizabeth’s births by year (CSV)

Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.

Is Elizabeth a boy’s or a girl’s name?

Elizabeth has been given almost only to girls: 5,216 boys in 146 years of records.

Girls and boys named Elizabeth: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.

How many people are named Elizabeth, and how old are they?

1.13 million alive in 2026, estimated

That is 67% of the 1,693,973 Americans ever recorded as Elizabeth. The median Elizabeth alive today is 43 years old; half are between 28 and 62.

The 2020 Census counted 1,206,652 people named Elizabeth (1,205,540 women and girls, 1,112 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,163,839 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.

Alive today, by age

100-109953
90-9912,900
80-8949,300
70-79112,000
60-69151,000
50-59127,000
40-49 (median)184,000
30-39181,000
20-29142,000
10-19104,000
0-967,000

Alive today, by generation

By generation
GenerationBornAlive
Silent Generation1928-194554,800
Baby Boomers1946-1964242,000
Generation X1965-1980224,000
Millennials1981-1996299,000
Generation Z1997-2012208,000
Generation Alpha2013-2025105,000

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 Elizabeth born?

The states with the most babies named Elizabeth are Texas, California and Florida, with 27% of its births recorded by state in 2025.

States with the most births: girls and boys together; rank among girls’ names in the state in 2025
StateBirths 2025Rank, girlsvs. national
Texas771#160.9×
California641#310.9×
Florida384#260.9×
Georgia291#100.9×
New York271#431.1×
North Carolina260#151.0×
Virginia244#111.2×
Ohio234#210.9×
Pennsylvania226#261.2×
Tennessee218#90.9×

Where Elizabeth is more common than its national share predicts

Relative to its national share, Elizabeth is most over-represented in Connecticut: since 1910 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.

Connecticut1.27×
Massachusetts1.26×
District of Columbia1.20×
Virginia1.18×
Pennsylvania1.17×
New York1.13×
Delaware1.13×
South Carolina1.12×

Bars start at 1× (as often as the national share predicts).

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 Elizabeth 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 1,749,022 babies since 1880, Elizabeth is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6,765 of their 7,060 babies (96%), again the most given.

Elizabeth and the names spelled alike
NameSince 1880Births 2025Peak year
Elizabeth1,693,9736,7651990
Elisabeth48,0452822001
Elizebeth4,603under 51928
Elizbeth1,28251960
Elyzabeth56682011
Elizibeth226under 52000
Elizebath204under 51919
Elizabth123under 51979

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 Elizabeth

Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.

NameRecorded1880-2025
Nina134,038
Katherine652,750
Julia477,993
Catherine669,611

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 Elizabeth and names like it

  1. Compare Elizabeth and ElisabethBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
  2. The most given names of the 1990sElizabeth peaked in 1990.
  3. New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elizabeth since 1910.
  4. Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Elizabeth: every such name, by how often it is given.
  5. The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Elizabeth.
  6. The names of the MillennialsMost people named Elizabeth alive today were born 1981-1996.
  7. Names starting with EMost given first.

Compare Elizabeth with another name