Name Awesome

El

UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

God

El has been given to 284 babies in the U.S. since 1915. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2000, with 11 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 87% boys, 13% girls all-time.

Babies named El, 2023

1 in 663,000

El over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — El over time

In 2023, El went to 0% girls and 100% boys.

19152023

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

El: meaning, origin, and history

God

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What El means

El means “god”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

El is used in Semitic Mythology.

Origin, language, and formation

El is used in English and Tocharian B.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, El is pronounced /ɛl/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 246 boys were recorded with the name El between 1915 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 11 in 2000; its best national rank was #2,695 in 1936.

In the United States, 38 girls were recorded with the name El between 1928 and 1947. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1928; its best national rank was #3,866 in 1928.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is El?

El had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where El sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another El. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Els were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as El was born before 1971 — so the typical El is around 54 today.

Median birth year
1971
About 54 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
16.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
16.7%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
153
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 16.3% of all recorded uses (40).

Is El rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 2000 (11)
Years since peak
25
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,695
1936

Where El is used

Across 1910–2025, El was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,332,384 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. El has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

El around the world

Where El ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2025
    #2,952
    in 2025
  • France
    1947–2025
    #668
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1993–2023
    #2,026
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    2012–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

El by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,695
1936
Peak year
2000
11 that year
First recorded
1915
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
246
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,866
1928
Peak year
1928
7 that year
First recorded
1928
Last recorded
1947
All-time count
38
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to El

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

EloElielElekElaiElisElyeElimElyaKelEliuElionEldarElizaElverEliyaEliorEllElkinEliavElexElyanElianelElicEloi

Sibling names for El

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around El

Top names of 2000, El's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1936Boys' names starting with E