Elias
Top 1000
About Elias
Strong, charismatic, and sleek, Elias has followed in the footsteps of Elijah and Eli to become a popular choice among parents today.
While it may sound cool and fresh, Elias is a name with history and substance. It is the Greek form of the name Elijah, meaning "Yahweh is God," and was used in both the Greek New Testament and medieval tales. Elias was then given to early saints, to honor the miracles and work of the popular Biblical figure.
Revived by Puritans in the 18th century, notable namesakes include the inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Howe, writer Elias Canetti and Walter Elias Disney.
Felix Mendelssohn composed a popular oratorio named "Elias", while Sir Walter Scott, Anthony Trollope, and Thomas Hardy all have characters called Elias in their novels, giving the name literary and classical charm.
In the US, Elias has seen significant usage from the 90s onwards with its popularity doubling during the 2010s.. Given to over 7600 boys in a recent year, Elias continues to climb the charts and has overtaken Eli as a go to El- choice.
While still outranked by Elijah in the US, across Europe and South America, Elias is the preferred form. Popular in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Mexico, Elias travels well. Most recently, it entered the UK Top 100 in 2022, replacing Ollie.
The name has been chosen for characters in the popular horror podcast, The Magnus Archives, Cassandra Clare's trilogy "The Infernal Devices", and the TV series "Person of Interest." Elias has the celebrity seal of approval too, with singer Michael Bublé, actor Robert Downey Jr, tennis player Boris Becker and actress Barbara Becker choosing to use it for their sons.
Handsome and refined as it is, the main problem with Elias is deciding whether you want to use it, or keep Elijah, Eli, Elliot, Elio, Eliza, Elizabeth, or Elise in the running. To avoid the problem, you could go with similar but lower ranking Tobias, Linus, or Ozias.
Pronounced ih-LY-us.
As of October 2026, Elias ranked #13 in US births in 2025 SSA, Nameberry popularity #37.
Editor's take: The name Elias is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "Yahweh is God".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #103 | 3,781 | 1,968.4 |
| 2015 | #100 | 4,099 | 2,138.5 |
| 2016 | #93 | 4,486 | 2,363.9 |
| 2017 | #78 | 4,931 | 2,664 |
| 2018 | #67 | 5,348 | 2,944.7 |
| 2019 | #60 | 5,720 | 3,188 |
| 2020 | #54 | 5,990 | 3,470.3 |
| 2021 | #48 | 6,349 | 3,629.1 |
| 2022 | #43 | 6,728 | 3,853.4 |
| 2023 | #36 | 7,003 | 4,093.9 |
| 2024 | #25 | 7,653 | 4,442 |
| 2025 | #13 | 8,837 | 5,173.7 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Elias.
- Tobias
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- Kieran
- Silas
- Ronan
- Ezra
- Malachi
- Callum
- Tristan
- Rhys
- Leon
- Rónán
- Mateo
- Agustus
- Cyrus
- Adrian
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- Roman
- Cillian
Elias on lists
Famous Eliass
- Elias Abdulmajid
brother of supermodel Iman
- Elias Becker
son of tennis player and model Boris and Barbara Becker
- Elias Boudinot
American politician
- Elias Breeskin
Russian violinist
- Elias Bublé
son of singer Michael Bublé
- Elias Canetti
awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Elias James Corey
American chemist
- Elias D'Onofrio
son of actor Vincent D'Onofrio
- Elias Dayton
American soldier and politician
- Elias Charles Disney
Canadian businessman, father of Walt Disney
- Elias Goldberg
American painter
- Elias Gottlob Haussmann
German painter
- Elias Logan Harger
American actor
- Elias Holl
German architect
- Elias Howe
American inventor of the sewing machine
- Elias Kane
American politician
- Elias Koteas
Greek,Canadian actor
- Elias Lindholm
Swedish hockey player
- Elias ibn Mudar
Arab chieftain, ancestor of the Prophet Muhammad
- Elias of Armenia
Armenian religious leader
- Elias Bender Rønnenfelt
Danish musician of band Iceage
- Elias Alves da Silva
Brazilian football player
- Elias Toufexis
Greek,Canadian actor
- Elias Wright
American Union brevet brigadier general during the Civil War era
- Exton Elias Downey
son of actor Robert Downey Jr
- Walter Elias "Walt" Disney
American founder of Disney
Elias in pop culture
- Elias Malmgren
a central character in Sara B Elfgren & Mats Strandberg's "Cirkeln" trilogy
- Elias Acorn
character in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series
- Elias Bogan
character in Marvel Comics
- Elias Grover
character in the 2006 film "Clerks II"
- Sergeant Elias Grodin
character in 1986 film "Platoon"
- Elias
fictional character in Panel de Pon
- Elias Ryker
character in Richard K. Morgan's novel, Altered Carbon
- Elias "Eli" Thompson
character on TV's "Boardwalk Empire"
- Elias Walker
character in the 2013 video game "Call of Duty: Ghosts"
- Elias Ainsworth
character in anime and manga "The Ancient Magus' Bride"
- Dr. Elias Huer
character from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (1979)
- Carl G. Elias
known as Elias, crime boss on TV's "Person of Interest"
- Elias Goldstein
character in video game "Shall We Date?"
- Elias Story
pseudonym of Isolt Sayre in J.K. Rowling's "Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry"
- Elias Veturius
main character in the book series "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
- Elias Bakkoush
character in Norwegian TV show "Skam"
- Elias
a character from the young adult books, "The Dead,Tossed Waves" and "The Dark and Hollow Places" by Carrie Ryan
- Elias
a character from Jose Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere"
- Elias
character in the novel Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young
- Elias Black
character in the 2017 video game “Prey”
- Elias Bouchard
character on "The Magnus Archives"
Variations & nicknames
- EliasonAmerican