Elliot
Meaning
“Jehovah is God”
The story
Elliot did not start as a first name at all. It is a surname, and behind the surname is a medieval English pet form of Elias, which is the Greek shape of Elijah, whose Hebrew name is traditionally read as the Lord is God. So the meaning families see on a name page belongs to Elijah, three languages back, and Elliot inherits it the way a great-grandchild inherits a nose. The spelling stayed unsettled: Elliot, Elliott and Eliot are all live, which is why our search folds them together rather than pretending they are strangers. In US records it climbed slowly and then decisively: about 1,900 babies in the 1970s, 5,400 in the 1990s, 8,300 in the 2000s, and more than 22,000 in the 2010s. It is a surname name that never sounded like a surname.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Elliot peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
116 people · the #37,144 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 6
The census also counted 44 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Elliot
Most people given the name Elliot in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Elliot deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Elliot truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Elliot fits with your family’s names and surname.
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