Given name
Elkanah
“one who belongs to God”
Elkanah is used as a given name. One Hebrew interpretation is “one who belongs to God.”
Original Hebrewאלקנה
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Hebrew interpretation is “one who belongs to God.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Hebrew.
How it developed
From Hebrew אֶלְקָנָה (ʾelqānā, “God has created”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1982. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
In the Bible
In the Bible, the name Elkanah appears in 1 Samuel 1:1, 1 Chronicles 6:33, Exodus 6:24 and 1 other passage.
- 1 Samuel 1:1
- 1 Chronicles 6:33
- Exodus 6:24
- 1 Chronicles 6:27
From biblical name research
Elkanah through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 58
- 58 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2019
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 6
- #11,053 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 6 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 11,053 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 160 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Elkanah’s family of names
Elkanah has a related form in Elkin. Elkanah has a related form in Elkan. Elkanah has a related form in Elkana.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 15
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
See also 4
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Elkanah
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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