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
Elmo through the years
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #465 among boys, with 15 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1889
    Elmo Lincoln born
    American film actor
  3. 1909
    Peak, #247
    80 babies named Elmo, its best rank.
  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.