Elliot

How to say it

/ˈɛl.i.ət/

What it means

Originally a medieval English diminutive of Elias (the English form of Elijah, Hebrew 'Yahweh is God'). Now used as a standalone given name; flipped strongly unisex in the 2010s.

Elliot started as a medieval English diminutive of Elias (the English form of Elijah, from the Hebrew Eliyahu, 'Yahweh is God'). The diminutive crossed into surname use as Eliot, Elliot, Elliott, and Eliott (each spelling has its proponents). T.S. Eliot (the poet) and George Eliot (the novelist whose real name was Mary Ann Evans) gave the surname literary anchor. As a first name Elliot has surged since the 2000s; the unisex shift accelerated with Elliot Page's coming out as trans-masculine in 2020. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial's Elliott (Henry Thomas, 1982) is the strongest pop-culture anchor. It's been in the US top 200 since 2010.

Heads-up notes

• Spelling

  Elliot, Elliott, Eliot, and Eliott all circulate. Elliot (one L, one T) is the dominant US spelling; Elliott (one L, double T) is also common. Eliot (the T.S. and George Eliot spelling) is rarer.

Who's worn it

Historical figures, characters, and public faces who share the name. The cultural surface, for whatever weight you want to give it.

• T.S. Eliot Anglo-American modernist poet, The Waste Land (Eliot as surname)
• George Eliot Pen name of Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans, Middlemarch
• Elliott (E.T.) Henry Thomas's character in Steven Spielberg's E.T., 1982

Spelling variants

• Elliott
• Eliot
• Eliott

Names with the same feeling

• Eli Ascended, my God
• Ezra Help, helper
• Asher Happy, blessed
• Isaiah Yahweh is salvation
• Atlas Bearer, enduring

See Elliot from another angle