Elwood

Where Elwood comes from

Elwood 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. 1857
    Elwood Haynes born
    American inventor
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #356 among boys — 23 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1915
    Peak, #204
    529 babies named Elwood — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1920
    Elwood V. Jensen born
    American biologist
  5. 1944
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #376.
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Elwood Haynes · American inventor, 1857–1925
  • Elwood V. Jensen · American biologist, 1920–2012
  • Elwood Hillis · American politician, 1926–2023
  • Elwood Cooke · US tennis player, 1914–2004
  • Elwood Mead · American academic and politician, 1858–1936

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.