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Elston vs Elsy

American parents have registered 1,832 Elsys since 1880, against 1,125 Elstons. Elsy is still ahead, with 78 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Elston against Elsy, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Elston Elsy

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

Of the 107 years in which either name was published, Elston for 62 years and Elsy for 45 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.

Side by side

  Elston Elsy
Total US births 1,1251,832
Most in one year 50135
Babies in 2025 678
Estimated living today 6801,800
Median age today 5713
Peak year 19612020
Best rank 1,108th boys1,559th girls
Rank in 2025 10,695th2,326th
First recorded 19111969
Girls / boys 5 / 1,1201,832 / 0

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 Elstons alive today are over 57; half the Elsys are over 13. That is 44 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: Elston and Elsy.