Elf
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A luminous spirit presiding over nature and fertility and dwelling in the world of Álfheim (Elfland). Compare angel, nymph, fairy
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ɛlf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Elf is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Sweden than in any other country.
- SESweden1 in 12K(measured from records)
- FIFinland1 in 14K
- MAMorocco≈1 in 71K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Sweden (measured from records)
- Sources
- 117 (measured from records)
- 1 in 12K (inferred from the name graph)
849 people
Highest-authority source
Sweden
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
eleven
Sources 1
- A Frequency Dictionary of German
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Elf is read(measured from records)
Elf is one spelling over 5 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English35%
A luminous spirit presiding over nature and fertility and dwelling in the world of Álfheim (Elfland). Compare angel, nymph, fairy.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Arabic12%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Elf in Arabic.
- Indonesian9.7%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Elf in Indonesian.
- Swedish7.5%
obsolete spelling of älv
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German6.8%
eleven
as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Elf counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
849 people counted by Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Elf is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Polish, elf (mythical or fantasy creature)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In enm, elf, fairy
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Maltese, thousand
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Lars Elfb. 1883SESwedish engineer
- Ingrid Elfb. 1946SESwedish illustrator
- Renate Elfb. 1947DEGerman judge
- Mads Julius Elfb. 1971DKDanish publisher
- Johan Elfb. 1975SESwedish biochemist (born 1975)
- Tatiana Elfb. 1975FIFinnish screenwriter
- Johan Elfb. 1987SESwedish handball player (born 1987)
- Ben Elfb. 1988FIFinnish magician
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 17 sources across 8 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 849 | #1,173 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 391 | #4,288 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Sukunimitilasto (Finnish surnames register) | — | 150 | — |
Reference works 3
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Elf come from?
- eleven Recorded by A Frequency Dictionary of German.
- What does the name Elf mean?
- In English, A luminous spirit presiding over nature and fertility and dwelling in the world of Álfheim (Elfland). Compare angel, nymph, fairy.
- How common is the name Elf?
- In Sweden, the national register counted 849 people named Elf, about 1 in 12 thousand residents.
- How common is Elf compared with other names?
- In St. Helena, Elf is the 837th most common surname of 3,440 surnames recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Elf?
- A machine transcription gives /ɛlf/ (IPA) for English.
- What are other forms of the name Elf?
- In the etymology graph, Vlf is a form of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Elf have the most bearers?
- In Sweden, the national register counted about 849 people named Elf, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled elf.
- Where is Elf most common?
- Elf is densest in Sweden, where the national register counts about 1 in 12 thousand people carrying it.
What do you want to know about Elf?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/elfThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Elf” — the 837th most common surname in St. Helena. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.