Ellis
2025 SSA
2025 SSA
About Ellis
Ellis is a former Old Man Name turned gender-neutral choice for the 21st century. It's one of the less used names in the currently popular El-family, unless you're in the UK, where it's a Top 100 choice.
Ellis for boys#243 US
Ellis has two separate roots: on one hand, it's an English surname, derived from Elias and Elijah, Greek and Hebrew names meaning "my God is Yahweh". On the other hand, it's popular Welsh name, also spelled as Elis, ultimately from the Old Welsh Elisedd (eh-lih-seth), meaning "benevolent, kind".
Ellis Bell was the male pseudonym of Emily Bronte when she wrote Wuthering Heights, while Ellis Marsalis is the paterfamilias of the noted jazz family, father of Wynton, Branford and others. There have been a number of Ellises on the big and small screen too: in The Wire, Grey's Anatomy and No Country for Old Men. As a surname, it's associated with designer Perry, writer Bret Easton and psychologist Havelock.
Predominantly used as a boy name in England and Wales, where it was given to 570 boys compared to 24 girls in recent stats, in the US, it is a unisex option, in the Top 1000 for both sexes. Masculine leaning, it was given to 1250 boys and 400 girls, meaning roughly three quarters of all babies called Ellis were boys in a recent year.
Ellis for girls#682 US
Ellis, a surname used sparingly as a first in the Wallace/Morris period, sounds new now for girls, as a gender-neutral alternative to Ella or Alice. It debuted in the US Top 1000 for girls in 2015.-- Ellis has always been in the Top 1000 for boys -- and seems to be headed straight up. One of the most popular gender-neutral names, currently there are two baby boys named Ellis for every girl.
Ellis Bell was the name chosen by Emily Bronte as her male pseudonym, and Ellis Grey was the mother of Dr. Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy.
Pronounced EL-iss.
As of October 2026, Ellis ranked #243 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #155 in 1899, Nameberry popularity #35.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank · boys | Births · boys | US rank · girls | Births · girls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #443 | 680 | #1,076 | 238 |
| 2015 | #422 | 740 | #963 | 282 |
| 2016 | #347 | 999 | #844 | 337 |
| 2017 | #311 | 1,109 | #743 | 380 |
| 2018 | #318 | 1,063 | #774 | 352 |
| 2019 | #342 | 976 | #717 | 398 |
| 2020 | #326 | 1,010 | #618 | 472 |
| 2021 | #320 | 1,037 | #597 | 501 |
| 2022 | #307 | 1,094 | #696 | 422 |
| 2023 | #274 | 1,230 | #750 | 375 |
| 2024 | #273 | 1,250 | #697 | 404 |
| 2025 | #243 | 1,417 | #682 | 415 |
World rankings
Ellis for girls
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Ellis on lists
Famous Elliss
- Ellis Paul (born Paul Plissey)Boy
American singer,songwriter
- Ellis Charles WackettBoy
Australian Air Force commander
- Ellis Andrew StonesBoy
Australian landscape architect
- Ellis AshmeadBoy
Bartlett, English war correspondant
- Ellis LanksterBoy
American football player
- Ellis James O'Leary (b. 2013)Boy
son of TV host Samantha Brown and Kevin O'Leary; twin sister Elizabeth Mae
- Bret Easton EllisBoy
American novelist
- Herbert Douglas 'Doug' EllisBoy
English soccer club chairman
- Ellis AllenBoy
English journalist and biographer
- Lindsay EllisBoy
media critic
- Ellis WylieGirl
contender in the first season of "The Glee Project"
- Elis ReginaGirl
legendary Brazilian singer
- George Francis Rayner EllisGirl
one of the world's leading theorists in cosmology
- Ellis WardGirl
British television presenter
- Ellis RowanGirl
Natural history artist
Ellis in pop culture
- Ellis Boyd "Red" ReddingBoy
character in film "The Shawshank Redemption"
- Ellis JonesBoy
character in film "The Age of Adaline"
- Ellis ShepherdBoy
son of Derek and Meredith on TV's "Grey's Anatomy"
- EllisBoy
character in the 2012 movie "Mud"
- EllisBoy
character in Left 4 Dead 2
- EllisBoy
character in TV's Parks and Recreation
- Ellis IslandBoth
a small island in New York Harbor that famously welcomed immigrants to the United States
- Ellis StevensBoy
character in TV's From
- Dr. Ellis GreyGirl
late mother of Dr. Meredith Grey on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy"
- Ellis ShepherdGirl
daughter of Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy"