Eli (name)

Eli as a name can have two different meanings, both originating in the Hebrew Bible.

Eli can be a masculine given name of Hebrew origin, from Biblical עֵלִי "ascent", spelled with the Hebrew letter ayin in the beginning, the name of Eli, the high priest in the Books of Samuel.[1] It came to be used as a given name among the Puritans in the 17th century and was by them taken to the American colonies.[2]

Eli may alternatively be an unrelated abbreviation of Hebrew names such as Elijah, Elisha, Eliezer, Elimelech, etc., all containing the element אלי, meaning "my god" and spelled with the Hebrew letter aleph in the beginning. El is the name of a Semitic deity that is used in the Bible as a name for the god of the Israelites, and -i is the suffix for the genitive form ("mine").

Eli is sometimes also used as a short form for feminine names, biblical or not, such as Elizabeth and Eliana.

In the United States, the popularity of the given name Eli was hovering around rank 200 in the 1880s. It declined gradually during the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries, falling below rank 700 in 1964. In a significant revival of the name's popularity in the early 1970s, it bounced back above rank 400 in 1976. Its popularity has continued to grow since then, entering the top 100 masculine given names in the 2000s, and ranking as 43rd most popular given name as of 2013.[3]

Eli and Elin are also short forms for the feminine name Helena used in Scandinavia.[4]