Name Awesome

Elke

#10,326 in 2025Girls' name

Noble + character, through Adelheid

Elke has been given to 1,116 babies in the U.S. since 1953. In 2025 it ranked #10,326 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1968, with 77 recorded.

Babies named Elke, 2025

1 in 368,000

Elke over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Elke: meaning, origin, and history

Noble + character, through Adelheid

Low German and West Frisian

What Elke means

Elke belongs to the name family reached through Elke → Adelheid → Adalheid. Its meaning is “noble + character”.

Origin, language, and formation

Elke is used in German. Its origins include Low German and West Frisian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Adelheid and Adalheid.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Elke is pronounced /ɛl.kə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,116 girls were recorded with the name Elke between 1953 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 77 in 1968; its best national rank was #1,251 in 1968.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #9,756 in 2020 to #10,326 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #11,162 in 2015 to #10,326 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 Elke?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 368,000
9 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 179,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#10,326
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
255,323 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Elke 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 255,323 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Elke. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Elkes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Elke was born before 1974 — so the typical Elke is around 51 today.

Median birth year
1974
About 51 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
31.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
18.7%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,116
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 31.7% of all recorded uses (354).

Is Elke 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
+1,062
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−570
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+836
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.00×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
11.7%
Peak was 1968 (77)
Years since peak
57
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,251
1968

Spellings of Elke

Elke is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 25.2% against Elke's 0.08%.

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 Elke is used

Across 1910–2025, Elke was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 236,975 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2New York1 in 100,000
  3. 3Illinois1 in —
  4. 4New Jersey1 in —
  5. 5Ohio1 in —
  6. 6Texas1 in —

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. Elke has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Elke around the world

Where Elke 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
    1998–2024
    #5,892
    in 2024
  • France
    1942–2023
    #7,085
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1954–2013
    #275
    in 2013

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

Elke by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#10,326
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 570
Best rank ever
#1,251
1968
Peak year
1968
77 that year
First recorded
1953
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,116
Count in 2025
9

Names similar to Elke

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

ElkaElkySilkeMalke

Sibling names for Elke

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 Elke

Top names of 1968, Elke's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1968Girls' names starting with EUncommon German Girl Names