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Elif

#1,915 in 2025Girls' name

One, through Eilífr

Elif has been given to 1,534 babies in the U.S. since 1977. In 2025 it ranked #1,915 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2024, with 115 recorded.

Babies named Elif, 2025

1 in 32,800

Elif over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Elif: meaning, origin, and history

One, through Eilífr

Arabic

What Elif means

Elif belongs to the name family reached through Elif → Eilífr. Its meaning is “one”.

Origin, language, and formation

Elif is used in Old Swedish and Turkish. Its origins include Arabic.

Elif comes through Old Norse Eilífr.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Eilífr.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,534 girls were recorded with the name Elif between 1977 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 115 in 2024; its best national rank was #1,755 in 2024.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #2,222 in 2020 to #1,915 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #3,146 in 2015 to #1,915 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Elif?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 32,800
101 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 15,900
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,915
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
22,753 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Elif sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 5002%

Put another way: gather 22,753 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Elif. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Elifs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Elif was born before 2016 — so the typical Elif is around 9 today.

Median birth year
2016
About 9 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
38.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
89.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,534
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 38.4% of all recorded uses (589).

Is Elif 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
−160
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+307
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,231
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.91×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
87.8%
Peak was 2024 (115)
Years since peak
1
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,755
2024

Spellings of Elif

Elif is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 21.7% against Elif's 0.09%.

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 Elif is used

Across 2016–2025, Elif was most concentrated in New Jersey — about 1 in 5,556 girls, against 1 in 14,491 across all states with data. It was least common in Maryland (1 in 50,000).

218 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Jersey1 in 5,556
  2. 2New York1 in 5,882
  3. 3Florida1 in 11,111
  4. 4California1 in 16,667
  5. 5Illinois1 in 20,000
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 25,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 25,000
  8. 8Washington1 in 25,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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.

Elif around the world

Where Elif 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
    1996–2025
    #684
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2014–2025
    #632
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2011–2023
    #727
    in 2023
  • France
    1971–2025
    #415
    in 2025
  • Norway
    2023–2025
    #391
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2023
    #1,665
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1989–2013
    #536
    in 2013

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

Elif by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,915
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 307
Best rank ever
#1,755
2024
Peak year
2024
115 that year
First recorded
1977
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,534
Count in 2025
101

Names similar to Elif

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

EliElinEliyaElieElizEliyahElisElioraElijahEliotElisiaEliaEliahElimElianyElidiaElizeElikaElineElizahElinaElianiElidaEliane

Sibling names for Elif

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 Elif

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