Elinor
Elinor is a girl's name that peaked in 1920, when it was the 257th most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 1,500th. About 6,900 Elinors are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 35.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Elinor
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 21,640
- Estimated living today
- 6,900
- Median age today
- 35
- Peak year
- 1920
- Best rank
- 257th
- Rank in 2025
- 1,500th
- First recorded
- 1880
How old the living Elinors are
born that year still alive today
Of the 21,640 babies given the name since 1880, about 6,900 are alive — 32 in every hundred. Roughly 2,600 of them are children and 2,700 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1990 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Elinors
- Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012)American political economist
- Elinor Glyn (1864–1943)British novelist and scriptwriter
- Elinor Barker (born 1994)Welsh racing cyclist
- Elinor Donahue (born 1937)actress
- Elinor Wylie (1885–1928)American poet
- Elinor Fair (1903–1957)American actress
- Elinor Crawley (born 1991)Welsh actress
People named Elinor with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Elinor is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Elinor is most concentrated in Massachusetts (4.3×), Maine (3.0×), Connecticut (2.6×), New York (2.2×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1920
The most popular girls’ names the year Elinor peaked:
Elinor elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales girls | Elinor | 1,600 | 273rd |
| France girls | Elinor +1 spelling | 515 | 1,327th |
| Norway girls | Elinor | 322 | 258th |
| Scotland girls | Elinor | 108 | 286th |
| Switzerland girls | Elinor +1 spelling | 85 | 843rd |
| Belgium girls | Elinor | 73 | 682nd |
| Ireland girls | Elinor | 3 | 516th |
| Northern Ireland girls | Elinor | 3 | 372nd |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Elinor: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German girls | Switzerland | Elinor | 55 | 0.004% | 703rd |
| French girls | Switzerland | Elinor | 21 | 0.005% | 630th |
| French girls | Switzerland | Élinor | 3 | 0.001% | 671st |
| Italian girls | Switzerland | Elinor | 5 | 0.008% | 181st |
| Romansh girls | Switzerland | Elinor | 1 | 0.027% | 9th |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
Elinor: rank by region
In 2019, Elinor was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Elinor | 716 | 6 |
In 2023, Elinor was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Italy.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste | Elinor | 8 | 1 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Italy after 10 names – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Elinor by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 14 | 408th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Elinor among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland girls | Elinor | 48 | 137 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Related names
Elinor against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.