Elmo

Where Elmo comes from

From an Italian contraction of Erasmo, cognate with Erasmus. Also a German short form of Elmar. * By folk etymology seen as a short form of Elmer.
— Wiktionary's entry for Elmo
  • Italian
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #465 among boys — 15 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1889
    Elmo Lincoln born
    American film actor
  3. 1909
    Peak, #247
    80 babies named Elmo — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1920
    Elmo Zumwalt born
    United States Navy admiral
  5. 1963
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,255.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Italian.
Namesakes
  • Elmo Lincoln · American film actor, 1889–1952
  • Elmo Zumwalt · United States Navy admiral, 1920–2000
  • Elmo Nüganen · Estonian actor and director of both film and theatre, born 1962
  • Elmo Williams · American film editor, producer and director, 1913–2015
  • Elmo Hope · American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, 1923–1967

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.