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Eligio vs Elijah

American parents have registered 381,915 Elijahs since 1880, against 1,548 Eligios. Elijah is still ahead, with 11,126 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Eligio against Elijah, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Eligio Elijah

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Elijah has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1965, when Eligio had 18 and Elijah had 122.

Side by side

  Eligio Elijah
Total US births 1,548381,915
Most in one year 3014,034
Babies in 2025 1311,126
Estimated living today 1,100366,000
Median age today 3714
Peak year 19852011
Best rank 1,916th boys13th boys
Rank in 2025 6,446th7th
First recorded 19091880
Girls / boys 0 / 1,5481,304 / 380,611

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Eligios alive today are over 37; half the Elijahs are over 14. That is 23 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Eligio and Elijah.