The name Elijah is derived from Elias, which goes back to the Bible and means ‘My God is YHWH!’ In the very original form in the Hebrew, the name is also found as ‘Elijáhu’.
Elijah is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
In the US, Elijah is one of the most popular names ever. In the SmartGenius ranking recently, it has regularly been among the top 10 most common boys names and is currently in place 6. In fact, one out auf 300 boys under the age of 10 is named Elijah. In total, there are currently 340,593 people – children, adults and seniors – named Elijah living in the United States, which is approximately 0.10 % of the entire population.
The name Elijah is derived from Elias, which goes back to the Bible and means ‘My God is YHWH!’ In the very original form in the Hebrew, the name is also found as ‘Elijáhu’.
Who is YHWH? YHWH is pronounced Yahweh, the name for the God of the Israelites as it was revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus.
Elijah
Elijah is an oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy about the story of the biblical prophet Elijah. The work was premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival in 1846. It remains one of the composer's best-known works to this day.
Elijah Wood (*1981)
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor and film producer. Probably his best-known role is that of Frodo Baggins in "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, which he also took on for a guest appearance in "The Hobbit" film series. He had other roles in "Hooligans, "The Last Witch Hunter" and in the series "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".
Elijah Kellogg (1813 - 1901)
Elijah Kellog Jr. was not only an American Congregationalist minister and lecturer, but also a children's book author. He published several series of books with adventure stories for boys.
Elijah Muhammad (1897 - 1975)
Elijah Muhammad was a U.S. black civil rights activist and leader of the "Nation of Islam" for 42 years. He is also significant in religious history because he introduced the Qur'an to African-American Muslims.
When you hear the name Elijah, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Elijah? Are you also called Elijah? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
in the United States carrie the name Elijah including in eastern Ozark County, Missouri.
is a geographic feature within Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve.
History tends to focus on the most famous and the best. But even those who play second fiddle leave their mark: Elijah is one of those names without which the orchestra would be incomplete. In fact, Elijah has reached the SmartGenius top ranking of #4 more than once - and again, not too long ago, the last time being in 2021. But even though the peak of popularity was not so long ago, the name Elijah has been given to newborn boys every year since records began. Elijah is a name of exceptional, enduring popularity, carrying the special vibes of the 20th century into the 21st.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Elijah was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
The popularity of the traditional name Elijah peaked only recently: the name has definitely arrived in the 21st century. Elijah has made it into the top ten more than once, in 2022 it was #5 in our statistics: the chances of meeting a Elijah are pretty high these days. Traditional names often prove to be perennial favorites, so who knows, maybe Elijah will eventually become one of the most popular names of all time.
There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Elijah is one of them. However, Elijah is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Nevada seem to particularly fancy this name – the 2,627 men called Elijah who live here are 0,464% of all male residents and push their name up to #48 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Nevada. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 340,593 people with the name Elijah. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Elijah on position 95 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter E is neither particularly common nor particularly rare as a first letter for boys' names: 3.8% of all common boys' names in the US begin with this letter. The most common first letters of boys' names, by the way, are J, A and D, while X, U and Q are the least common initials of boys' names.
With six letters, the name Elijah is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that with 3.8%, E as the first letter in boys' names is almost as common as all 26 letters on average - and of all the boys' names that start with an E, Edward is the most common.
If your name is Elijah and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Elijah, you can simply say:
Elephant
Lion
Igloo
Joker
Apple
Hat
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Elijah
Elijah
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
E
L
I
J
A
H
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
E
L
I
J
A
H
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Elijah sounds like this:
