Entry № 2847 · Greek origin

Eleanor Eleanor — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ EL-eh-nor /

Gender

Girl

Origin

Greek

Meaning

"Shining light"

Syllables

First recorded

12th c.

The meaning

A name that means "shining light".

Eleanor has been quietly classical for most of a millennium and quietly popular for most of a century. Recently it has surged in the U.S.

Shining light — a Greek name.

In its original form

The name in its native script.

Eleanor

Transliteration: Eleanor
Pronunciation: / ˈɛl.ə.nɔːr /
Root: —
Grammatical form: —

Popularity

Where Eleanor stands.

Eleanor does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Namesakes

Eleanors before her.

Real people

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Queen of France and then of England. One of the most powerful women of medieval Europe.

c. 1122 – 1204

Eleanor Roosevelt

American first lady, diplomat, and human rights activist. Chair of the UN commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1884 – 1962

In fiction

Eleanor

Title character in Edith Wharton's novella Old New York: New Year's Day.

1924

Eleanor Shellstrop

Central character of the NBC comedy The Good Place.

2016–2020

Names connected to Eleanor.

Numerology

The number behind Eleanor.

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Eleanor reduce to 7, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.