Elif

femaleStatistical record

What official birth registration shows about Elif: which national registrars published it, in which years, and how its recorded position changed.

No researched meaning, origin or pronunciation yet — what that means.

Elif: Recorded every year since 1996, its highest recorded position is #369, and it stood at #396 in 2025.

4registrars recorded it
38times a registrar ranked it
30years from first to last
#369highest recorded position
12groupings it qualifies for

Region

Rising

among girls in England and Wales · 1996–2024

View as table

England and Wales · Girls rank by year
Year	Rank
1996	#1031
1997	#1126
1998	#1259
1999	#985
2000	#897
2001	#992
2002	#1032
2003	#1176
2004	#1106
2005	#1012
2006	#753
2007	#854
2008	#779
2009	#795
2010	#910
2011	#629
2012	#647
2013	#784
2014	#608
2015	#517
2016	#573
2017	#616
2018	#641
2019	#532
2020	#655
2021	#812
2022	#729
2023	#754
2024	#686

VerifiedSource: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales.Confidence: high.

See all England and Wales names · Source: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales

What the data shows

RisingEngland and Wales · Girls

Recorded in official data among girls in England and Wales in every year from 1996 to 2024.

In 2024: #369 among girls in Norway, #686 among girls in England and Wales, #790 among girls in Scotland.

Official data from 4 national registrars across 4 regions, 1996–2025 · Office for National Statistics. Data sources

Popularity journey

First recorded1996
First recorded at #1031 among girls in England and Wales in 1996 — the earliest year that source publishes this name, not necessarily the earliest it was used.
England and Wales · Girls
Highest recorded2023–2025
Highest recorded position: #369 among girls in Norway, in 2024 (recorded 2023–2025).
Norway · Girls
Most recent2025
Most recently recorded at #396 among girls in Norway, in 2025.
Norway · Girls

Elif appears in 3 of the published lists Namewise holds. The longest record is England and Wales · Girls, which has ranked it in 29 years beginning in 1996, and has registered 1,267 births with the name.

Elif across 3 official records

Each registrar publishes its own list, so these figures are read down a row, never across one. A position in one country is not comparable with a position in another, and Namewise never combines them into a single ranking. The birth counts do not compare across rows either, for a different reason: England and Wales registers roughly thirty times as many births a year as Northern Ireland, so a larger total says which registrar recorded it as much as how widely the name was given.

Elif's first, highest and most recent recorded position in each official list, with the number of births each registrar registered with the name and its largest single year
Published list	First recorded	Highest	Most recent	Years recorded	Births registered	Most in one year
England and Wales · Girls	#1031 (1996)	#517 (2015)	#686 (2024)	29 of 29	1,267 (1996–2024)	83 (2015)
Republic of Ireland · Girls	#937 (2011)	#727 (2023)	#727 (2023)	5 of 13	16 (2011–2023)	4 (2023)
Norway · Girls	#437 (2023)	#369 (2024)	#396 (2025)	3 of 3	21 (2023–2025)	8 (2024)

Elif by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Births registered with the name in each decade of this one list, with the number of years the list covers in that decade. Bars are scaled on births a year, which is the figure that compares between decades — a decade the list only partly covers has a smaller total without being a quieter decade. Figures belong to this registrar alone and do not carry to another.

Births registered with Elif in England and Wales · Girls, by decade, with years covered and the average per year
Decade	Births registered	Years covered	A year
1990s	72	4 of 10	18
2000s	297	10 of 10	30
2010sbusiest	645	10 of 10	65
2020s	253	5 of 10	51

Across England and Wales · Girls, the 2010s were its busiest decade, averaging 65 births a year.

Its sharpest single-year move came between 2010 and 2011, when recorded births rose by 26, from 38 to 64.

See the names England and Waleshas recorded the most births with →

Elif appears in

Groupings this name qualifies for under their own stated rules, from the same official statistics shown above.

Popularity data

Official popularity data is available for 4 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #369 in Norway in 2024.

Elif's recorded popularity observations by year, region and administrative category, including rank, registered births, source confidence and when each region's data was last reviewed.
Year	Region	Category	Rank	Births registered	Confidence	Status
2024	England and Wales	female	#686	55	High	Verified
2023	England and Wales	female	#754	47	High	Verified
2022	England and Wales	female	#729	50	High	Verified
2021	England and Wales	female	#812	44	High	Verified
2020	England and Wales	female	#655	57	High	Verified
2019	England and Wales	female	#532	76	High	Verified
2018	England and Wales	female	#641	63	High	Verified
2017	England and Wales	female	#616	68	High	Verified
2016	England and Wales	female	#573	73	High	Verified
2015	England and Wales	female	#517	83	High	Verified
2014	England and Wales	female	#608	67	High	Verified
2013	England and Wales	female	#784	49	High	Verified
2012	England and Wales	female	#647	64	High	Verified
2011	England and Wales	female	#629	64	High	Verified
2010	England and Wales	female	#910	38	High	Verified
2009	England and Wales	female	#795	44	High	Verified
2008	England and Wales	female	#779	44	High	Verified
2007	England and Wales	female	#854	37	High	Verified
2006	England and Wales	female	#753	41	High	Verified
2005	England and Wales	female	#1012	25	High	Verified
2004	England and Wales	female	#1106	21	High	Verified
2003	England and Wales	female	#1176	19	High	Verified
2002	England and Wales	female	#1032	21	High	Verified
2001	England and Wales	female	#992	21	High	Verified
2000	England and Wales	female	#897	24	High	Verified
1999	England and Wales	female	#985	21	High	Verified
1998	England and Wales	female	#1259	15	High	Verified
1997	England and Wales	female	#1126	17	High	Verified
1996	England and Wales	female	#1031	19	High	Verified
2025	Norway	female	#396	7	High	Verified
2024	Norway	female	#369	8	High	Verified
2023	Norway	female	#437	6	High	Verified
2023	Republic of Ireland	female	#727	4	High	Verified
2021	Republic of Ireland	female	#883	3	High	Verified
2015	Republic of Ireland	female	#896	3	High	Verified
2014	Republic of Ireland	female	#876	3	High	Verified
2011	Republic of Ireland	female	#937	3	High	Verified
2024	Scotland	female	#790	3	High	Verified

England and Wales hub — collected by Office for National Statistics
Norway hub — collected by Statistics Norway (SSB)
Republic of Ireland hub — collected by CSO Ireland
Scotland hub — collected by National Records of Scotland

See methodology and data sources for how popularity data is collected and what "confidence" means.

What the record shows

Recorded by 4 registrars between 1996 and 2025, ranked in 30 years of that period.

Its highest recorded position is #369, first reached in 2024.

Its largest count from any one registrar is 83 births, registered in England and Wales in 2015.

A second registrar first ranked it in 2011, and 28 years separate the first registrar to record it from the last.

Every figure here is counted from the seven official registrars Namewise holds. A position is only ever a place within the list that published it, and a record that thins or stops is a fact about what registrars printed — never about how many children received the name.

Where to go next

Records with a comparable body of evidence, so the catalogue can be read outward from this one. Each group states the rule it was selected by.

Next in the catalogue

The records either side of this one alphabetically.

Eliel · #1322, 11y
Eliezer · #764, 29y
Elija · #363, 17y
Elijah · #7, 30y

A comparable record

Records held by the same 4 registrars, over a similar number of ranked years, whose highest position is closest to this one. A similar body of evidence — never a claim that the names themselves are alike.

Cassidy · #370, 30y
Gracie-Mae · #368, 25y
Aliya · #367, 30y
Clay · #365, 30y

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Records whose earliest ranking in Namewise's registrar data also falls between 1990 and 1999.

Blane · #369, 19y
Christophe · #369, 11y
Connall · #369, 15y
Gino · #369, 29y

Elif was ranked #369 in Norway · Girls in 2024. These are the names immediately either side of it on that published list — a fact about the registrar's own output, not a similarity judgement.

Elif and the names beside it

Two names in the same published list are measured on the same scale, in the same year, by the same registrar — so these are positions that genuinely passed each other, not a similarity judgement. Drawn from the 2,573 names with a recorded popularity standing (common, familiar, uncommon), so a name outside that set could have passed Elif without appearing here.

Elif moved ahead of

Suzanne Compare
In 2005 they stood at #1012 and #745 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2006 that had become #753 and #1585.
Wendy Compare
In 2005 they stood at #1012 and #1012 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2006 that had become #753 and #1585.
Belinda Compare
In 2003 they stood at #1176 and #909 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2004 that had become #1106 and #1715.
Jordan Compare
In 2005 they stood at #1012 and #951 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2006 that had become #753 and #1325.

Moved ahead of Elif

Mila Compare
In 2002 they stood at #1032 and #1442 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2003 that had become #1176 and #799.
Harper Compare
In 2011 they stood at #629 and #858 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2012 that had become #647 and #284.
Riley Compare
In 2015 they stood at #517 and #539 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2016 that had become #573 and #301.
Maja Compare
In 2002 they stood at #1032 and #1245 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2003 that had become #1176 and #933.

Moved the opposite way to Elif

Josefine Compare
Between 1998 and 2023 in England and Wales · Girls, Elif went from #1259 to #754 while Josefine went from #3848 to #5687.
Rian Compare
Between 1996 and 2015 in England and Wales · Girls, Elif went from #1031 to #517 while Rian went from #2350 to #5730.

What's not yet available

Meaning
Origin
Pronunciation
Nicknames and spelling variants

Absence from this list does not mean the name isn't genuinely meaningful or widely used — only that Namewise hasn't sourced and reviewed that content yet. Absence from a specific year or geography above does not prove zero use there either; official statistics only publish names above a minimum threshold.

Official popularity data is available for 4 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #369 in Norway in 2024. Source data last verified 2026-07-21.

Elif

Elif at a glance

What the data shows

Popularity journey

Elif across 3 official records

Elif by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Elif appears in

Popularity data

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Elif

Elif and the names beside it

Elif moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Elif

Moved the opposite way to Elif

Elif at a glance

Elif across 3 official records

Elif by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Elif appears in

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Elif

Elif and the names beside it

Elif moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Elif

Moved the opposite way to Elif