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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

UnisexOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

EliyaIn Hebrew: אליה · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: אֵלִיָּהRomanization: 'Eliyá

Eliya (Hebrew: אליה) is a unisex name of biblical origin. 22,046 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 1,033 boys and ranked #14. Its peak year was 2024, with 1,215 babies.

People in Israel
22,046
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
1,033
rank #14
Peak year
2024
1,215 babies
USA, 2025
18
rank #5,208

Writing and saying Eliya

In Hebrew letters the name is אליה, read right to left. Eliya is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "'Eliyá" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a male given name, equivalent to English Elijah
Shortened from of אֵלִיָּהוּ ('Eliyáhu, “Elijah”).

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Eliya by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Eliya: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Eliya in English-speaking countries

Eliya in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202518#5,2082018 (18)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Eliya has every year and the other spellings.

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Eliya

How do you write Eliya in Hebrew?

Eliya is written אליה in Hebrew (with vowel points: אֵלִיָּה). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "'Eliyá".

How many people in Israel are named Eliya?

22,046 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name אליה: 6,959 women and 15,087 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Eliya a boy's or a girl's name?

Both. In Israel 32% of the people named אליה are women and 68% are men, so we count it as unisex (our threshold: at least 20% of the less common sex).

What does the name Eliya mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a male given name, equivalent to English Elijah" Etymology: Shortened from of אֵלִיָּהוּ ('Eliyáhu, “Elijah”).

Is Eliya used outside Israel?

The name Eliya appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 18 boys were given it in 2025 (#5,208), per the Social Security Administration.

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.