Elly
Elly was given to 129 girls in 2025, #1,613 among girls’ names; 4,595 Americans have been recorded with it since 1921 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,430 Americans named Elly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 9 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Elly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Elly mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Elly is “a diminutive of the female given names Elisabeth and Eleanor”
/ˈʔɛli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Elly?
#1,613 among girls’ names, 2025
Elly fell from #1,488 in 2015 to #1,613 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 86.3 to 80.3 per million.
191 babies in 2010, the peak
Elly peaked in 2010, when 191 girls were given it, #1,254 among girls’ names. The 129 births of 2025 are 68% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 129 | #1,613 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 117 | #1,736 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 113 | #1,795 | 0.07 |
| 2022 | 136 | #1,560 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 117 | #1,751 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 140 | #1,521 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 139 | #1,551 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 135 | #1,591 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 146 | #1,517 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 167 | #1,397 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (89)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 154 | #1,488 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 174 | #1,348 | 0.10 |
| 2013 | 176 | #1,330 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 168 | #1,387 | 0.10 |
| 2011 | 157 | #1,440 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 191 | #1,254 | 0.11 |
| 2009 | 138 | #1,623 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 122 | #1,791 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 133 | #1,666 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 130 | #1,631 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 114 | #1,732 | 0.06 |
| 2004 | 122 | #1,602 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 100 | #1,848 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 101 | #1,782 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 76 | #2,151 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 62 | #2,461 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 86 | #1,846 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 33 | #3,592 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 37 | #3,175 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 36 | #3,248 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 29 | #3,690 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 31 | #3,551 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 39 | #3,005 | 0.02 |
| 1992 | 32 | #3,435 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 29 | #3,648 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 28 | #3,733 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 36 | #2,994 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 18 | #4,700 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 19 | #4,339 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 25 | #3,476 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 20 | #4,017 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 16 | #4,537 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,548 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 23 | #3,558 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 29 | #3,010 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 33 | #2,762 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 30 | #2,877 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 20 | #3,669 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 19 | #3,798 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 25 | #2,951 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 21 | #3,310 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 22 | #3,136 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 11 | #4,970 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 10 | #5,203 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 18 | #3,551 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 16 | #3,759 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 16 | #3,504 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 16 | #3,362 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 9 | #4,719 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 12 | #3,795 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 17 | #3,082 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 19 | #2,937 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 16 | #3,220 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 12 | #3,853 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 18 | #2,988 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,325 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,676 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 12 | #3,600 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,643 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,473 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,863 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,058 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 10 | #3,779 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,084 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 11 | #3,334 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,427 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 7 | #4,355 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 7 | #4,478 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 6 | #4,254 | under 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #3,995 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 8 | #3,302 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 6 | #4,216 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 10 | #3,006 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 5 | #5,015 | under 0.01 |
| 1926 | 9 | #3,335 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 10 | #3,176 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,121 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,224 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 9 | #3,488 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Elly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Elly has been given almost only to girls: 10 boys in 89 years of records.
Girls and boys named Elly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Elly, and how old are they?
4,430 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 4,595 Americans ever recorded as Elly. The median Elly alive today is 16 years old; half are between 9 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 4,914 people named Elly (4,725 women and girls, 189 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,748 born in the U.S. The Census count is 31% above 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 140 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 280 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 411 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,760 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,830 |
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 Elly born?
The states with the most babies named Elly are California, Florida and New York, with 65% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
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 Elly 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, Elly is the sixth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 129 of their 13,304 babies (<1%), again the sixth 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 Elly
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 Elly and names like it
- Compare Elly and EllaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sElly peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elly since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Elly: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Elly.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Elly alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.