Elba

Where Elba comes from

Elba hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1888
    First appearance
    #1,276 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1891
    Peak, #750
    13 babies named Elba — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1894
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  4. 1941
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  5. 1945
    Elba Esther Gordillo born
    Mexican politician
  6. 1951
    Elba Ramalho born
    Brazilian singer
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Elba Ramalho · Brazilian singer, born 1951
  • Elba Esther Gordillo · Mexican politician, born 1945
  • Elba Lightfoot · African-American painter, 1910–1989
  • Elba Álvarez · Spanish handball player, born 2001
  • Elba Escobar · Venezuelan actor, born 1954

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.