Elif

Spellings & scripts●

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 in 1 language 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◐

Elif is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• German given name73K records spelled Elif18 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, Türkiye, Netherlands, Austria

  Languages: German, English, Dutch

  Also written E'Lif, 'Elif, Élif, '-Elif, Elîf

• French given name49K records spelled Elif19 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Türkiye, Argentina, Peru

  Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Élif, E'Lif, Ëlíf, Êlif, Elîf

• Russian given name7.7K records spelled Elif32 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Kazakhstan, Türkiye, Russia, North Macedonia

  Languages: Russian, Kazakh, Polish

  Also written Элиф, Елиф, Еліф, Ĕļîf, Ëlìf

• Indonesian given name4.7K records spelled Elif6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, Indonesia, United States, Netherlands

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written E'Lif, Élif, Ělif, Èlif

• a separate given name4.3K records spelled Elif2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, United States, United Kingdom, Belgium

  Also written Elîf

• Italian given name1.1K records spelled Elif2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands

  Also written Elîf

23 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●

Elif is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Elif är som kvinnonamn ett turkiskt namn med arabiskt ursprung efter namnet på den första bokstaven, alíf, i det arabiska alfabetet. Elif betyder på turkiska ’den enda’. En turkisk tv-serie, som sändes i svensk tv 2014–2019, bär namnet. Det i Sverige på 1800-talet förekommande mansnamnet Elif är ett nordiskt namn, en form av Elef (→ Elof ).

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, weibl. Vom. türkischen Ursprungs (zu arab. alif, dem ersten Buchstaben des arab.

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In English, A conditional statement in computer code that runs after an "if" statement.

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

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●

XK ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search) — 45 years between 1945–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Elif Shafakb. 1971TRTurkish writer (born 1971)
• Elif Ürseb. 1980TRTurkish actor (born 1980)
• Elif Jale Yeşilırmakb. 1986RUTurkish wrestler (born 1986)
• Elifb. 1992DEGerman singer
• Elif Atakanb. 1993TRTurkish actor (born 1993)
• Aylivab. 1998DEnot in their usual nameGerman singer-songwriter
• Eljif Elmasb. 1999MKnot in their usual nameMacedonian association football player
• Elif Şahinb. 2001TRTurkish volleyball player (born 2001)
• Elif UluenginTRTurkish film editor
• Elif ErolTRactress

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 · 585 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Elif?

We estimate roughly 566 thousand people bear Elif (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Elif have the most bearers?

We estimate about 556 thousand people bear Elif in Türkiye, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled elif.

Where is Elif most common?

Elif is densest in Türkiye, where the national register counts about 1 in 147 people carrying it.

How common is Elif compared with other names?

In Türkiye, Elif is the 18th most common given name of 294,597 given names recorded there.

Is Elif a male or female name?

Elif is a female 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 Elif mean?

Recorded meaning: 1. Arap alfabesinin ilk harfi.