as a First Name
Biblical name (meaning ‘Yahweh is God’ in Hebrew), borne by an Israelite prophet whose exploits are recounted in the First and Second Book of Kings. Elijah's victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel played an important part in maintaining the Jewish religion, recognizing just one God. This story, and other stories in which he figures, including his conflicts with Ahab's queen, Jezebel, and his prophecies of doom, are among the most vivid in the Bible. For some reason it has not been much used as a given name by Christians, although it is found among the early Puritan settlers in New England and in the U.K. in the 18th century. In the 1960s and 70s it gained considerable popularity among Black Muslims.
| 1,330th in the U.S. for 2011 |
Nicknames & variations
Quick facts
- Thousands
- of people in the U.S have this name
- 17,478
- to be exact (as of February 2011)
- 180,074
- if you include dead people (since the government started keeping track)
- South Carolina
- has the most people named Elijah per capita
- 2010
- marked the height of its popularity
0.09%
99.91%
3%
55+
55+
4%
30-54
30-54
8%
13-29
13-29
86%
0-12
0-12
Top state populations
U.S. Distribution Map
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