# Eli (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/eli/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Hebrew |
| Meaning | “ascent” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈilaɪ/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 154,512 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 153,495 / 1,017 (1% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 8,640, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Hebrew עֵלִי (“ascent”); cognate to the Arabic-derived Ali.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 39 | 3,862 |
| 2012 | 31 | 4,634 |
| 2013 | 36 | 4,096 |
| 2014 | 22 | 5,850 |
| 2015 | 27 | 5,023 |
| 2016 | 33 | 4,369 |
| 2017 | 23 | 5,556 |
| 2018 | 38 | 3,873 |
| 2019 | 33 | 4,274 |
| 2020 | 29 | 4,576 |
| 2021 | 29 | 4,652 |
| 2022 | 41 | 3,723 |
| 2023 | 29 | 4,678 |
| 2024 | 44 | 3,530 |
| 2025 | 35 | 4,099 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 7,220 | 58 |
| 2012 | 8,079 | 43 |
| 2013 | 7,952 | 43 |
| 2014 | 7,513 | 49 |
| 2015 | 7,163 | 53 |
| 2016 | 7,132 | 50 |
| 2017 | 6,637 | 54 |
| 2018 | 6,094 | 57 |
| 2019 | 5,539 | 62 |
| 2020 | 5,281 | 60 |
| 2021 | 4,913 | 64 |
| 2022 | 4,704 | 69 |
| 2023 | 4,111 | 79 |
| 2024 | 3,742 | 92 |
| 2025 | 3,418 | 104 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 7 | 2,895 |
| 2008 | 4 | 4,524 |
| 2009 | 5 | 3,936 |
| 2011 | 6 | 3,549 |
| 2012 | 10 | 2,521 |
| 2013 | 7 | 3,160 |
| 2014 | 4 | 4,684 |
| 2016 | 6 | 3,609 |
| 2017 | 7 | 3,229 |
| 2018 | 10 | 2,499 |
| 2020 | 3 | 5,493 |
| 2021 | 4 | 4,634 |
| 2022 | 5 | 3,970 |
| 2023 | 5 | 4,056 |
| 2024 | 4 | 4,843 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 350 | 164 |
| 2012 | 402 | 145 |
| 2013 | 440 | 134 |
| 2014 | 513 | 123 |
| 2015 | 538 | 119 |
| 2016 | 619 | 105 |
| 2017 | 605 | 105 |
| 2018 | 556 | 111 |
| 2019 | 587 | 107 |
| 2020 | 529 | 110 |
| 2021 | 570 | 105 |
| 2022 | 470 | 117 |
| 2023 | 407 | 133 |
| 2024 | 394 | 135 |
| 2025 | 373 | 137 |

## In other languages

- Arabic: عالي
- Catalan: Elí
- Chinese: 以利
- Czech: Élí
- Esperanto: Eli
- Finnish: Eeli
- French: Éli
- German: Eli
- Hebrew: אֵלִי, עֵלִי
- Hungarian: Éli
- Indonesian: Eli
- Italian: Eli
- Japanese: エリ
- Korean: 엘리
- Latin: Hēlī
- Portuguese: Eli
- Russian: Илий
- Ukrainian: Ілій

## People named Eli

- Eli Wallach, American actor (1915–2014)
- Eli Whitney, American inventor (1765-1825)
- Eli Roth, American filmmaker and actor
- Eli Manning, American football player (born 1981)
- Eli Junior Kroupi, French footballer (born 2006)
- Eli Lilly, American pharmacist, Union Army officer, businessman, philanthropist
- Eli Marienthal, American actor
- Eli Broad, American businessperson and philanthropist (1933–2021)
- Eli Dershwitz, American fencer
- Eli Yablonovitch, American physicist
- Eli Goree, Canadian actor
- Eli Blanchard, Canadian lacrosse player (1881–1941)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.