Elwyn

Where Elwyn comes from

Elwyn 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.

Along the way
  1. 1893
    First appearance
    #1,035 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1894
    Elwyn Roy King born
    fighter ace in the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) during World War I
  3. 1912
    Peak, #592
    47 babies named Elwyn — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1940
    Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp born
    American mathematician
  5. 1950
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,572.
  6. 2015
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp · American mathematician, 1940–2019
  • Elwyn Roy King · fighter ace in the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) during World War I, 1894–1941
  • Elwyn L. Simons · U.S. paleontologist and primatologist, 1930–2016
  • Elwyn Hartley Edwards · author and equestrian, 1927–2007
  • Elwyn Friedrich · Swiss ice hockey player, 1933–2012

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.