Elmo
Elmo is absent from the 2024 data, which means fewer than five births. Its best rank was 247th, in 1909.
- Rank in 2024
- —fewer than 5 births
- Births in 2024
- 0not in the data
- Peak year
- 1920397 births
- Best rank
- #247in 1909
- Since 1880
- 10,338people given the name
The story in the numbers
10,091 boys have been named Elmo in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1920, with 397 births.
The name has all but left use: none recorded in 2024, against 397 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1925, and the 1920s alone account for 29%. It has spent 79 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 247 girls have also been given it, 2.4% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Elmo | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 135 | |
| 1890s | 191 | |
| 1900s | 416 | |
| 1910s | 2,476 | |
| 1920s | 2,891 | |
| 1930s | 1,436 | |
| 1940s | 1,022 | |
| 1950s | 691 | |
| 1960s | 376 | |
| 1970s | 202 | |
| 1980s | 131 | |
| 1990s | 85 | |
| 2000s | 23 | |
| 2010s | 5 | |
| 2020s | 11 |
In 1920, its biggest year
Elmo was the 279th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1920 were John, William, Robert, James and Charles. See all of 1920.
Names that rose and fell with Elmo
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Irvingpeak 1918
- Alphonsepeak 1918
- Wilburpeak 1918
- Morrispeak 1918
- Orvillepeak 1920
- Ellwoodpeak 1918
- Orvalpeak 1918
- Wilfredpeak 1920
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.