Elle
Elle was given to 668 girls in 2025, #461 among girls’ names; 19,247 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 19,100 Americans named Elle and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 7 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Elle by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Elle mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Elle is “a diminutive of the female given name Eleanor and other names beginning with El. Also given as a name in its own right.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Elle?
#461 among girls’ names, 2025
Elle fell from #397 in 2015 to #461 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.46 to 0.42 per 1,000.
890 babies in 2019, the peak
Elle peaked in 2019, when 890 girls were given it, #355 among girls’ names. The 668 births of 2025 are 75% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 668 | #461 | 0.42 |
| 2024 | 644 | #479 | 0.40 |
| 2023 | 702 | #441 | 0.44 |
| 2022 | 795 | #394 | 0.48 |
| 2021 | 870 | #357 | 0.53 |
| 2020 | 842 | #370 | 0.52 |
| 2019 | 890 | #355 | 0.53 |
| 2018 | 817 | #382 | 0.48 |
| 2017 | 833 | #375 | 0.48 |
| 2016 | 834 | #399 | 0.47 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 819 | #397 | 0.46 |
| 2014 | 825 | #396 | 0.46 |
| 2013 | 749 | #408 | 0.43 |
| 2012 | 822 | #383 | 0.47 |
| 2011 | 766 | #414 | 0.44 |
| 2010 | 750 | #420 | 0.42 |
| 2009 | 709 | #444 | 0.39 |
| 2008 | 642 | #492 | 0.34 |
| 2007 | 677 | #475 | 0.35 |
| 2006 | 653 | #481 | 0.34 |
| 2005 | 594 | #505 | 0.32 |
| 2004 | 596 | #494 | 0.32 |
| 2003 | 497 | #556 | 0.27 |
| 2002 | 418 | #612 | 0.23 |
| 2001 | 197 | #1,078 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 181 | #1,128 | 0.10 |
| 1999 | 170 | #1,151 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 145 | #1,252 | 0.08 |
| 1997 | 142 | #1,250 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 141 | #1,238 | 0.08 |
| 1995 | 130 | #1,284 | 0.07 |
| 1994 | 125 | #1,338 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 94 | #1,612 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 103 | #1,523 | 0.06 |
| 1991 | 110 | #1,440 | 0.06 |
| 1990 | 91 | #1,633 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 96 | #1,495 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 40 | #2,656 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 27 | #3,356 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 12 | #5,867 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,604 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,362 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #10,875 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,131 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,063 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Elle a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Elle has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 45 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Elle: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Elle, and how old are they?
19,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 19,247 Americans ever recorded as Elle. The median Elle alive today is 13 years old; half are between 7 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 15,938 people named Elle (15,853 women and girls, 85 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 14,823 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 12 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 965 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,880 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,200 |
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 Elle born?
The states with the most babies named Elle are California, Texas and Florida, with 33% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 97 | #336 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 64 | #502 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 46 | #407 | 0.9× |
| New York | 44 | #394 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 33 | #328 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 27 | #406 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 22 | #495 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 18 | #569 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 17 | #455 | 0.8× |
| Massachusetts | 16 | #361 | 1.1× |
Where Elle is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Elle is most over-represented in Utah: since 1977 it was given 2.0 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 Elle 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 546,207 babies since 1880, Elle is the fourth most given (3.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 668 of their 13,304 babies (5.0%), the third 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 Elle
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 Elle and names like it
- Compare Elle and EllaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sElle peaked in 2019.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elle since 1910.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Elle.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Elle alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.