Name Awesome

Elam

#2,213 in 2025Boys' name

Possibly hidden or eternity

Elam has been given to 2,940 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #2,213 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2015, with 144 recorded.

Babies named Elam, 2025

1 in 51,800

Elam over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Elam: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly hidden or eternity

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Elam means

Elam may mean “hidden or eternity”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,940 boys were recorded with the name Elam between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 144 in 2015; its best national rank was #761 in 1898.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,696 in 2020 to #2,213 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,257 in 2015 to #2,213 in 2025.

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.

How common is Elam?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 51,800
64 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 26,700
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,213
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
35,906 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Elam 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 2025 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 35,906 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Elam. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Elams were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Elam was born before 2008 — so the typical Elam is around 17 today.

Median birth year
2008
About 17 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
31.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
57.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,418
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 31.6% of all recorded uses (930).

Is Elam 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
+1
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−517
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−956
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.44×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
44.4%
Peak was 2015 (144)
Years since peak
10
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
15.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#761
1898

Spellings of Elam

Elam is not the most common spelling — Adam is, with 26.6% against Elam's 0.13%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Elam is used

Across 2016–2025, Elam was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 3,226 boys, against 1 in 21,373 across all states with data. It was least common in Florida (1 in 100,000).

131 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 in 3,226
  2. 2Kentucky1 in 4,762
  3. 3Indiana1 in 14,286
  4. 4Missouri1 in 20,000
  5. 5Ohio1 in 20,000
  6. 6Tennessee1 in 20,000
  7. 7North Carolina1 in 25,000
  8. 8Colorado1 in 33,333

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.

Elam around the world

Where Elam 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.

  • France
    2016–2025
    #4,073
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2008–2024
    #2,328
    in 2024

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Elam

People whose public names include Elam, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Elam by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,213
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 517
Best rank ever
#761
1898
Peak year
2015
144 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,940
Count in 2025
64

Names similar to Elam

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

ElanEladioElaiWillamElazarAlamIslamLamElayEladElaineMilamEilamBalamElandDylamAslamAalamSalamIlamDilamElanteElarioElaan

Names with a curve like Elam

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Elam, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

EllisonNyleArieCarverGentryGrayAnselLazarusMendelJeronimoMayerSteele

Sibling names for Elam

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 Elam

Top names of 2015, Elam's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1898Boys' names starting with E