Elvis
- Pronunciation
- [El-vis]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Elf-Wise Friend. Variant Of Alvin. Made Famous By Singer And Actor Elvis Presley.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Elvis
Elvis is an English name often explained as a variant of Alvin, from Old English roots meaning "elf-wise friend" or "noble friend," though its precise origin is debated. Whatever its earliest source, the name became a twentieth-century cultural icon and carries a distinctive, rockabilly charisma that few other names can match, instantly evoking a sense of showmanship and style.
One well-known bearer is Elvis Costello (born 1954), an English singer-songwriter and producer whose five-decade music career has produced multiple defining late-1970s and 1980s English new-wave-and-rock records, beginning with his 1977 first commercial album. His long, inventive career helped keep the name vivid and relevant for a new generation of listeners.
For American boys, Elvis entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 and held a place through 2011, accumulating 3,154 births over that period. It reached its peak at the start of that run, in 2000 at rank #593, then eased over the following years — recorded at #715 in 2008, #856 in 2009, and #904 in 2011 before slipping from the list. Recorded variants include Alvis and Elvio, the latter a warm Spanish and Italian form, offering families a softer alternative to the boldly iconic Elvis itself, while the original keeps its one-of-a-kind, mid-century charisma intact.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Elvis
US Popularity History (2000–2011)
Annual US births named Elvis by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2007 with 355 boys named Elvis (boy rank #674 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2011, ranked #904 for boys (224 US births). That's 230 places below its 2007 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Elvis Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Elvis the strongest states are New York, California, New Jersey.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #756 | 136 |
| 2 | California | #784 | 233 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #900 | 38 |
| 4 | Virginia | #921 | 19 |
| 5 | Texas | #993 | 67 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #993 | 67 |
| 2 | Virginia | #921 | 19 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #900 | 38 |
| 4 | California | #784 | 233 |
| 5 | New York | #756 | 136 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Elvis in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Elvis
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Elvis.
- Elvis Costello — Rock Singer (1954)
Looking for names like Elvis?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Elvis to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Elvis against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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