Names that start with El have been getting increasingly popular over the past few years, but now they've crossed into Megatrend territory, the way Jen names and Ash names and Aden names have before them.
The top two most-searched names right now are El names, Elowen and Elsie. And over the past month, the top three girl names start with El. Along with Elowen, they are Eleanor and Eliana, the #12 and #10 girls' names in the US.
Other El names in our Top 100 over the past month:
Names with -el in the middle are also trending. In our internalTop 100, we also see, in order of popularity:
Also trending a bit further down the list are these El names:
Does this mean you shouldn't use an El name for your child? Not necessarily, but if you do so, we want you to be aware that you're going to hear a lot of similar names in the years ahead, so that even fairly rare names like Elowen and Elodie will feel less unique and distinctive than they really are.
And a lot of the girls with El starting names will be called Ellie, whether you want them to be or not.
Names this trendy get popular for a reason. El is a lovely sound, calling to mind bells and elegance, elation and electricity. And names starting with L have also been trending with lots of room to go. Our 2040 popularity projections forecast, along with the continued popularity of all the El names mentioned, along with that of Lucy, Lainey, and Lily for girls; Liam, Levi, Luca, and Leo for boys.
And then there are all the popular names that start with a different vowel plus L: Olivia, Ailany, Isla, and Alice for girls; Oliver and Alexander for boys.. Add it all together and you've got a full-blown baby name mega-trend.
Pamela Redmond
Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.
Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.