Ely

Ely is the 2,839th most common surname in the United States, shared by 12,347 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 24,200.

By the numbers

People: 12,347
Rank: 2,839th
How common: 1 in 24,200
Per 100,000: 4.1

Where the name comes from

from Old English Ēlīġ, of uncertain origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Ely described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 85.4%
Black, not Hispanic 6.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.8%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Ely

Ron Ely (1938–2024)American actor and novelist
Eugene Burton Ely (1886–1911)American aviation pioneer
Richard T. Ely (1854–1943)United States economist and author
Joe Ely (1947–2025)American singer-songwriter
Melvin Ely (born 1978)American basketball player

People named Ely with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Also a first name

Ely has been given to 5,087 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2009. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.