Elaine

176,185 people in America carry this name — ranked #313 of 923.

Carried mostly by the Baby Boomers.

Say it ih LAYN

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

IH0 L EY1 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 176,185 2020 Census
  • Rank #313 Common
  • Per 100,000 58.3 about 1 in 1,881 people

The meaning and origin of Elaine

Greek in origin, reading literally as “light”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Elaine through the years

259,533 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1947, with 7,074 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40s 50 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1940s.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names for Elaine

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Elaine Elizabeth — runs together
  • Elaine Nancy — runs together
  • Elaine Emily — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

A name from before the war

The year most children were called Elaine was 1947. Names of that age tend to come back once their owners are grandparents.

Boys or girls: who is called Elaine?

0.1% men
176,006 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Who answers to it now

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 77.0%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 9.3%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 5.9%
  • Two or more races — 1.7%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 5.6%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.6%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

The states where Elaine is most common

In New Mexico the name is given 1.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • New Mexico ×1.8
  • Massachusetts ×1.8
  • New York ×1.6
  • Maine ×1.5
  • Connecticut ×1.4

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

This name in other languages

  • Leno Esth
  • Lena Alb.|Lett
  • Jela Serv
  • Nelly English
  • Ljena Alb
  • Lenka Slov
  • Lenia Alb
  • Ilona Hungarian
  • Helen Scottish
  • Ellin Welsh
  • Ellen English
  • Elena Italian
  • Elene
  • Leonor Spanish

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Try it Compare Two Names

Put another name beside this one.

One of those is not in the census file.

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Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin