Elkins

surname · Latin script

Meaning: ‘Son of Elkin (i)’

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/ɛlkɪnz/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Elkins is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 13K(measured from records)
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 18K
  • ITItaly≈1 in 26K

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.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈79,000 people, est.

Sources
461 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 13K (inferred from the name graph)

United States

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

‘Son of Elkin (i)’

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Where in the world(measured from records)

Elkins 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.

Where Elkins is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈79,000 est.≈1 in 18K—Elkins6
US United States—24,9021 in 13K25KElkins461
EG Egypt—≈4,000 est.≈1 in 26K—Elkins6
GB United Kingdom—≈3,600 est.≈1 in 18K—Elkins132
IT Italy—≈2,400 est.≈1 in 26K—Elkins11
IE Ireland—≈380 est.≈1 in 14K—Elkins6
KR South Korea#730≈220 est.≈1 in 237K—Elkins2
IS Iceland—≈20 est.≈1 in 17K—Elkins2

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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010. 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Elkins is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, France, Chile, Argentina

    Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

    Also written Elkîns

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Elkin-S

  • Russian surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

    Also written Елкінс, Ёлкинс, Элкинс, Елкинс

  • Hebrew surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Israel

    Also written אלקינס

34 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Stephen Benton Elkins, b. 1841Eleanor Elkins Widener, b. 1861Davis Elkins, b. 1876Michael Elkins, b. 1917Stanley Elkins, b. 1925Hillard Elkins, b. 1929Aaron Elkins, b. 1935Gary Elkins, b. 1966Caroline Elkins, b. 1969Darren Elkins, b. 1984

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)

FormalDear Colleague,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 18 sources across 10 countries.

Official registers attesting Elkins
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201025K#1,426
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200024K#1,356
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202023K#1,487
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 3

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

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

What does the name Elkins mean, and where does it come from?
‘Son of Elkin (i)’ Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
How do you pronounce Elkins?
A machine transcription gives /ɛlkɪnz/ (IPA) for English.
In which country does Elkins have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 79 thousand people named Elkins in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled elkins.
Where is Elkins most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Elkins is densest in the United States — about 1 in 13 thousand people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Elkins?
In the United States, the national register counted 24,902 people named Elkins in 2010, about 1 in 13 thousand residents.
How common is Elkins compared with other names?
In South Korea, Elkins is the 730th most common surname of 14,133 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Elkins?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/elkins

The 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, “Elkins” — the 730th most common surname in South Korea. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Elkins parses inside a full name →