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Elmo

Boys' name

Helmet, protection

Elmo has been given to 10,338 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1920, with 397 recorded.

Babies named Elmo, 2023

1 in 663,000

Elmo over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Elmo: meaning, origin, and history

Helmet, protection

Italian

What Elmo means

Elmo means “helmet, protection”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Elmo is used in Italian, English, Finnish and Estonian.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈel.mo/ and /ˈɛl.moʊ/ for Elmo.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From an Italian contraction of Erasmo, cognate with Erasmus. Also a German short form of Elmar. * By folk etymology seen as a short form of Elmer.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Elmo (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Elmo is used in English, Estonian, Finnish and German. Its origins include Italian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Erasmo, Elmar and Elmer.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Elmo is pronounced /ˈɛlmoʊ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,091 boys were recorded with the name Elmo between 1880 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 397 in 1920; its best national rank was #247 in 1909.

In the United States, 247 girls were recorded with the name Elmo between 1906 and 1937. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1916; its best national rank was #1,483 in 1913.

How common is Elmo?

Elmo 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 Elmo 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 Elmo. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Elmos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Elmo was born before 1925 — so the typical Elmo is around 100 today.

Median birth year
1925
About 100 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
28.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.45%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,524
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 28.6% of all recorded uses (2,891).

Is Elmo 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 1920 (397)
Years since peak
105
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#247
1909

Spellings of Elmo

Elmo is not the most common spelling — Leo is, with 34.9% against Elmo's 1.4%.

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 Elmo is used

Across 1910–2025, Elmo was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 3,846 boys, against 1 in 24,233 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in —).

026 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 3,846
  2. 2Arkansas1 in 5,556
  3. 3Kentucky1 in 6,667
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 6,667
  5. 5Mississippi1 in 7,143
  6. 6Virginia1 in 10,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 11,111
  8. 8Missouri1 in 14,286

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

Elmo around the world

Where Elmo 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
    1997–2007
    #3,095
    in 2007
  • France
    1925–2006
    #5,086
    in 2006
  • South Australia
    1959–1959
    #464
    in 1959

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.

Notable people named Elmo

People whose public names include Elmo, 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.

Elmo in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Elmo. Linked forms have their own page here.

ElmarElmerElmeAlmárElmárJelmer

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Elmo 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
#247
1909
Peak year
1920
397 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
10,091
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,483
1913
Peak year
1916
19 that year
First recorded
1906
Last recorded
1937
All-time count
247
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Elmo

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

ElmerElmoreElmaAnselmoElmonElmarElmusElmanElmiElminElmondElmorAlmoDelmoElmirAncelmoElmenStelmoElmontAntelmoAdelmoElmedinTelmo

Names with a curve like Elmo

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

AlphonseOrvalEllsworthBusterEarleCyrilPatsyClairMilfordWaldoAlvaWilford

Sibling names for Elmo

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 Elmo

Top names of 1920, Elmo's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1909More old man namesBoys' names starting with E