Elias

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Илья in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, FI Finland and 1 more, Ilyas in TR Türkiye, Ілля in UA Ukraine and Iliyas in IN India.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Elias is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French given name168K records spelled Elias29 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, United States, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Élias, Elies, Elías, Elîas, Elïas

• Finnish given name146K records spelled Elias13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, Sweden, Latvia

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Ëlias, Ęlīâš, Elías, Eliaš, Élíás

• Norwegian Bokmål given name84K records spelled Elias23 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, United States

  Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Danish, Swedish

  Also written Elías, Êliăs, Ělïąš, Elïâs, Eliaš

• Swahili given name76K records spelled Elias6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Kenya, Tanzania, United States, South Africa

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho, Nyanja

  Also written Elías

• a separate given name58K records spelled Elias11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, India, Ethiopia

  Also written Elías, Eliáš, Ēlías, Eliás, Éliás

• Indonesian given name22K records spelled Elias4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, United States

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Elías, Elia'S

• Polish given name6.7K records spelled Elias9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, United States, Spain, Tanzania

  Also written Elías, Eľïãś, Ęļíąş, Éliás, Eliáš

• Bangla given name5.5K records spelled Elias16 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Bangladesh, United States, Tanzania

  Languages: Bangla, Hindi, Odia

  Also written Elius, এলিয়াস, Eliasi, ଇଲିଆସ, Eliaş

81 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Elias is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Hebrew, Hebrew 'Yahweh is my God'; biblical prophet

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• Biblical name, from the Greek form (used in the New Testament) of the name of the prophet pElijah. See also Ellis.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In Portuguese, Elijah (Old Testament prophet)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, A different form of Ellis

  as a name·Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

• In Italian, forma arcaica e latina de Elia

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Nizamib. 1141AZnot in their usual namePersian poet
• Elias Lönnrotb. 1802FIFinnish physician, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry (1802-1884)
• Walt Disneyb. 1901USnot in their usual nameAmerican animator, producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor and entrepreneur, founder of The Walt Disney Company (1901–1966)
• Elias Canettib. 1905BGBulgarian-born Swiss and British Jewish modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer (1905–1994)
• Elia Kazanb. 1909USnot in their usual nameAmerican director and actor (1909–2003)
• Elias Menachem Steinb. 1931USAmerican mathematician (1931-2018)
• Michel Temerb. 1940BRnot in their usual name24th Vice-President of Brazil from 2011 to 2016 and 37th President of Brazil from 2016 to 2019
• Martin Seligmanb. 1942USnot in their usual nameAmerican psychologist and writer
• Elias Koteasb. 1961CACanadian actor
• Mattéo Guendouzib. 1999FRnot in their usual nameFrench footballer (born 1999)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,717 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Elias?

We estimate roughly 461 thousand people bear Elias (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Elias have the most bearers?

Elias is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled илья.

Where is Elias most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Elias is densest in Finland — about 1 in 188 people — even though Russia holds more of our records for it.

How common is Elias compared with other names?

In Russia, Elias is the 50th most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.

Is Elias a male or female name?

Elias is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Elias mean?

Recorded meaning: Name of the prophet Israel, existing in the 18th and 19th centuries in Baden, mainly Müllheim area.