Elle

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Ellen in US United States, GB United Kingdom, NL Netherlands and 20 more and Elen in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, ES Spain and 3 more.

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 22 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◐

Elle is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Finnish given name16K records spelled Elle8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, Estonia, Philippines

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Ellen, Ĕlle, Éllé, Èlle, Êllë

• French given name6.8K records spelled Elle47 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Ellen, Ëlle, 'Elle, Ellè, Ellé

• Portuguese given name4.6K records spelled Elle37 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Philippines, Argentina

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

  Also written Ellen, Éllen, Èllen, Ellé, Ellén

• a separate given name2.2K records spelled Elle4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Norway

  Also written Ellé, Ëlle, Ellē

• Swahili given name778 records spelled Elle7 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho, Kinyarwanda

  Also written Ellen, Élle, Ellę, Ëlle

• Italian given name644 records spelled Elle6 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Ellen, Ellê, Éllen, Ellé, Ellë

• Indonesian given name604 records spelled Elle16 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Philippines, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Ellen, 'Ellen, Êllê, Èllé, Ellé

58 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●

Elle 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 Swedish, Elle kan i äldre tid ha varit en samisk eller sydsvensk form av → Elin. I dag är det o ftare en kortform av namn som Gabrielle (→ Gabriella) och → Danielle. En känd namn bärare är den amerikanska skådespelerskan Elle Fanning (f. 1998).

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, Berufsname zum Schneider oder Tuchhändler; zu mhd. elne/elle 'Elle'.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen

• In German, weibl. Vom., Variante von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Estonian, a female given name, short form of Helena (“Helen”) and Eliisabet

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

• In Portuguese, Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of ele.

  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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 45 years between 1977–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Elle Macphersonb. 1964AUAustralian model and actress
• Elle Kennedyb. 1982CACanadian novelist; bestselling author of contemporary romance and romantic suspense
• Elle Loganb. 1987USAmerican rower
• Elle Kingb. 1989USAmerican singer, songwriter, and actress
• Elle Evansb. 1989USAmerican model
• Elle Alexandrab. 1991USAmerican pornographic actress
• Elle Fanningb. 1998USAmerican actress
• Madison Beerb. 1999USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer (born 1999)
• Elle McKinnonb. 2006CACanadian actress
• Elle Grahamb. 2009USAmerican actress

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 · 530 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Elle?

We estimate roughly 309 thousand people bear Elle (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Elle have the most bearers?

Elle is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled ellen.

Where is Elle most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Elle is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 338 people — even though United Kingdom holds more of our records for it.

How common is Elle compared with other names?

In the United Kingdom, Elle is the 174th most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.

Is Elle a male or female name?

Elle 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 Elle mean?

Recorded meaning: A diminutive of the female given name Eleanor and other names beginning with El.