Elsa

Where Elsa comes from

From German Elsa, contraction of Elisabeth, occasionally used in English after its appearance in Wagner's opera Lohengrin (1847). The common noun is after the character of the Frozen series of films.
— Wiktionary's entry for Elsa
  • German
  • Hebrew
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Elsa through the years
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #367 among girls, with 20 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1895
    Peak, #215
    160 babies named Elsa, its best rank.
  3. 1902
    Elsa Lanchester born
    British-American actress
  4. 1904
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #378.
  5. 1912
    Elsa Morante born
    Italian novelist
  6. 2013
    Around this time: Frozen
    Film, 2013 · Source
    “After the release of Disney's Frozen at the end of 2013, in which a main character is named Elsa, the name became more popular in different countries across the world.”
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from German or Hebrew.
Namesakes
  • Elsa Morante · Italian novelist, 1912–1985
  • Elsa Lanchester · British-American actress, 1902–1986
  • Elsa Pataky · Spanish model and actress, born 1976
  • Elsa Triolet · Russian-French writer, 1896–1970
  • Elsa Martinelli · Italian fashion model and actress, 1935–2017

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. Events show what happened around then, not why parents chose the name. Quotes are from the linked Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).