Elles
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in Spanish: they; a gender-neutral plural third-person personal pronoun
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 13 countries · latest register: Census Bureau, 2020
/eʎes/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Elles is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Colombia than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 1.1M(measured from records)
- COColombia≈1 in 23K
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 254K
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.
- Colombia (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 148 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 23K (inferred from the name graph)
≈2,200 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Colombia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)they; a gender-neutral plural third-person personal pronoun
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Elles is read
(measured from records)Elles is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 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.
- Spanish44%
they; a gender-neutral plural third-person personal pronoun
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- English37%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Elles in English.
- French7.5%
they (female)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)Elles 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CO Colombia | ≈2,200 est. | ≈1 in 23K | 1 | — | 3 |
| PH Philippines | ≈430 est. | ≈1 in 254K | — | Elles | 14 |
| US United States | 296 | 1 in 1.1M | 366 | Elles | 148 |
| FR France | ≈210 est. | ≈1 in 322K | 23 | — | 1 |
| DE Germany | ≈170 est. | ≈1 in 467K | — | Elles | 35 |
| CR Costa Rica | 13 | 1 in 392K | 13 | — | — |
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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names; the co-datosgov-candidates register. 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)Elles is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, Herkunftsname zu gleichlautendem Siedlungsnamen zwischen Bonn und Altenkirchen (Westerwald); 65 Belegträger.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In Hungarian, to learn by watching, to acquire by (close and often secret) observation (from someone: -tól/-től)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Portuguese, Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of eles.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In ang, else, otherwise, in another manner
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)- William Ellesb. 1837GBBritish Army officer (1837-1896)
- J. Currie Ellesb. 1853GBAustralian stockbroker
- Gertrude Ellesb. 1872GBBritish geologist (1872-1960)
- Patricia Wentworthb. 1878GBnot in their usual nameBritish writer (1878–1961)
- Hugh Ellesb. 1880GBBritish Army general
- Diana Ellesb. 1921GBBritish politician (MEP) (1921-2009)
- James Ellesb. 1949GBBritish politician (born 1949)
- Rob Ellesb. 1951molecular geneticist
- Wilma Ellesb. 1986DEGerman actress
- Dayana Segoviab. 1996COnot in their usual nameColombian volleyball player
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)28 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 13 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 366 | #59,630 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 327 | #58,130 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 296 | #66,754 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 41 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 41 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 39 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 39 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 38 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 37 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 29 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 28 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 23 | — |
Reference works 5
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- 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 Elles mean, and where does it come from?
- they; a gender-neutral plural third-person personal pronoun Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Elles?
- A machine transcription gives /eʎes/ (IPA) for Spanish.
- In which country does Elles have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 2.2 thousand people named Elles in Colombia, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Elles?
- In the United States, the national register counted 296 people named Elles in 2010, about 1 in 1.1 million residents.
What do you want to know about Elles?
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/ellesThe 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, “Elles”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.