Elya
Elya is given to both girls and boys: 11 girls and 24 boys were given it in 2025 (#9,029 among girls’ names and #4,287 among boys’, #7,159 among all names counting both); 659 Americans have been recorded with it since 1983 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Elya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Elya?
#4,287 among boys’ names, 2025
Elya rose from #7,203 in 2015 to #4,287 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 5.7 to 14.1 per million.
38 babies in 2019, the peak
Elya peaked in 2019, when 38 babies were given it (28 boys, #3,823 among boys’ names). The 35 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 92% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #9,029 | 24 | #4,287 |
| 2024 | 15 | #7,345 | 14 | #6,269 |
| 2023 | 15 | #7,360 | 17 | #5,518 |
| 2022 | 10 | #9,900 | 19 | #5,080 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,415 | 21 | #4,676 |
| 2020 | 11 | #9,123 | 21 | #4,585 |
| 2019 | 10 | #9,953 | 28 | #3,823 |
| 2018 | 6 | #14,322 | 25 | #4,122 |
| 2017 | 6 | #14,657 | 20 | #4,789 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,606 | 19 | #4,991 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #9,673 | 11 | #7,203 |
| 2014 | 7 | #13,493 | 10 | #7,713 |
| 2013 | under 5 | 14 | #6,001 | |
| 2012 | 9 | #11,553 | 11 | #7,191 |
| 2011 | 5 | #17,575 | 10 | #7,653 |
| 2010 | 8 | #12,645 | 14 | #6,134 |
| 2009 | 5 | #18,140 | 11 | #7,348 |
| 2008 | 9 | #11,885 | 17 | #5,312 |
| 2007 | under 5 | 11 | #7,234 | |
| 2006 | 6 | #15,705 | 9 | #8,192 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 6 | #10,480 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 8 | #8,358 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 6 | #9,950 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 5 | #11,208 | |
| 2001 | 5 | #16,081 | 12 | #5,776 |
| 2000 | under 5 | 7 | #8,462 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 6 | #9,043 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 5 | #10,100 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 8 | #6,803 | |
| 1994 | 5 | #14,100 | 5 | #9,244 |
| 1992 | 5 | #13,941 | 5 | #8,826 |
| 1991 | 5 | #13,811 | 5 | #8,597 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,524 | under 5 | |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,233 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,622 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,056 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 11 | #6,292 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 13 | #5,443 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,429 | under 5 | |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,364 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Elya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 659 Americans recorded as Elya, 39% are girls and 61% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Elya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Elya, and how old are they?
An estimated 651 Americans named Elya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 21. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 692 people named Elya (335 women and girls, 357 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 475 born in the U.S. The Census count is 46% 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.
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 Elya born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 19 | #749 | 4.4× |
Where Elya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Elya is most over-represented in New York: since 1983 it was given 4.4 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 boys’ 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 Elya 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 179,326 babies since 1880, Elya is the seventh most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 4,515 babies (<1%), again the seventh 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 Elya
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 Elya and names like it
- Compare Elya and EliBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sElya peaked in 2019.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elya since 1910.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Elya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Elya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.