MEANING & HISTORY
What does Elijah mean?
Elijah comes from Hebrew Eliyyahu, a statement conventionally translated my God is Yahweh. Greek and Latin transmission produced related forms such as Elias.
The biblical prophet Elijah is central to its naming history. The name’s religious sentence should not be shortened to merely God or light, which omits its actual construction.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
From Hebrew אליהו (Eliyahu, literally “Yahweh is my god”). Doublet of Ilya and Iliya. Compare Joel. See also Arabic إلياس.
A unisex given name from Hebrew, of chiefly male usage; A male given name from Hebrew.; A female given name from Hebrew, of chiefly Philippine usage.
Wiktionary: Elijah (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Elijah
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Elijah Canlas
Filipino actor
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Elijah Canlas
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Elijah in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Elijah
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Elias♂My God is Yahweh
- Elías♂Spanish form of Elias; my God is Yahweh
- Eliaz·Elias variant: my God is Yahweh
- Elifas·My God is victorious, in a scholarly analysis
- Elisa♀Form of Elisabeth; God is my oath
- Elita♀Name with proposed links to chosen or Elisabeth
- Eliza♀Short form of Elizabeth; God is my oath
- Elam·Hebrew name with hidden and eternity proposals
What rhymes with Elijah?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Elijah further
Follow the sources
- Wikidata given-name item Q19827682 — Elijah (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Elijah Canlas (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q19827682 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Elijah (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Elijah (opens in a new tab)
Personal-name formation and etymological relationships; imported dictionary account consulted.