Eli

Where Eli comes from

From Hebrew עֵלִי (“ascent”); cognate to the Arabic-derived Ali.
— Wiktionary's entry for Eli
  • Hebrew
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1765
    Eli Whitney born
    American inventor
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #177 among boys — 73 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1915
    Eli Wallach born
    American actor
  4. 2012
    Peak, #43
    8,079 babies named Eli — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2012
    The comeback
    Back to #43 after sinking to #703 in 1964.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Hebrew of Biblical origin.
Namesakes
  • Eli Wallach · American actor, 1915–2014
  • Eli Whitney · American inventor, 1765–1825
  • Eli Cohen · Israeli spy, 1924–1965
  • Eli Roth · American filmmaker and actor, born 1972
  • Eli Heckscher · Swedish historian and economist, 1879–1952

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.