Ellie
Ellie is a girls' name of English origin meaning “bright, shining light.” It ranked #25 in the United States in 2025. A diminutive of Eleanor, Ellen, or Elizabeth.
how do you pronounce Ellie?
EL-ee
Hear it spoken aloud with our AI pronunciation tool.
what does Ellie mean?
The name Ellie means “bright, shining light.” It comes from the English language tradition.
A diminutive of Eleanor, Ellen, or Elizabeth. It has grown from a nickname into a full given name and is currently one of the most popular girls' names in the United States and United Kingdom.
where does the name Ellie come from?
A pet form rather than a name in its own right, serving Eleanor, Ellen, Elizabeth, Eloise and Elena more or less interchangeably. The bright shining gloss reaches it through Helen, from the Greek helenē, meaning torch or corposant.
the history of Ellie
Ellie is one of a group of diminutives that became independent legal names in the late twentieth century, a shift that would have puzzled earlier generations who regarded such forms as strictly domestic. It ranked in the British top ten through the 2000s and remains widely used across the English-speaking world.
how popular is this name?
| Year | Rank |
|---|---|
| 2024 | #25 |
| 2023 | #26 |
| 2022 | #27 |
| 2021 | #29 |
| 2020 | #32 |
Source: SSA National Baby Names Dataset
what are the nicknames and variants of Ellie?
Nicknames
Variants around the world
who are famous people named Ellie?
- Ellie Goulding
- Ellie Kemper
- Ellie (fictional, Up and The Last of Us)
what names are similar to Ellie?
what names go well with Ellie?
Sibling names that share Ellie's rhythm and register without echoing it too closely.
Last reviewed April 30, 2026 · Curated by HushName editorial
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