# Is Ellie in the Bible? No, but Elizabeth, One of the Names It Shortens, Is Source: https://christianpure.com/learn/is-ellie-in-the-bible/ Publisher: Christian Pure (https://christianpure.com/) Published: 2025-01-10 Updated: 2026-09-21 No one named Ellie appears in the Bible. Ellie is an English short form of Eleanor, Ellen, Elizabeth and other names that begin with El. Only one of those is in Scripture: Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist in Luke's Gospel, whose name comes from the Hebrew Elisheba, "my God is an oath." ## What does Ellie mean? Ellie has no meaning of its own. It carries the meaning of whichever longer name it shortens, and its three main sources have different histories. Eleanor comes from the Old French form of Alienòr, a name in Occitan, the language of southern France. It is usually explained through Eleanor of Aquitaine, the 12th-century queen of France and later of England, who is said to have been named after her mother, Aenor, with the Latin phrase *alia Aenor*, "the other Aenor." Earlier bearers of the name make that story uncertain. Ellen was the usual medieval English spelling of Helen, from the Greek Helene, which probably comes from a word meaning "torch." Elizabeth is the English form of the Greek Elisabet, the New Testament spelling of the Hebrew Elisheba. Ellie became popular in the United Kingdom in the 1990s and was the second most common name for girls there in 2003. In the United States it was among the top 1,000 names for girls from 1880, when the records begin, until 1930, disappeared from the list, and returned in 1992. It rose to 21st place in 2024 and ranked 24th in 2025. Ella, Elle, Nell and Nellie are other short forms of Ellen. ## Is Ellie a biblical name? No. Ellie does not appear in the Hebrew or Greek text of the Bible or in any translation. Its link to Scripture runs through [Elizabeth](https://christianpure.com/learn/elizabeth-biblical-meaning/). Luke says that Zechariah, a priest, "had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth" (Luke 1:5). They were old and had no child, but Elizabeth bore a son, and when the relatives wanted to name him after his father, she answered, "No; he shall be called John" (Luke 1:60). Her Hebrew name had belonged much earlier to the wife of Aaron, Elisheba (Exodus 6:23). The Catholic Church remembers Elizabeth on 5 November, and the Orthodox Church with Zechariah on 5 September. ## What does Ellie mean in Hebrew? Ellie is not a Hebrew name and has no Hebrew meaning, though two Hebrew words sound like it. [Eli](https://christianpure.com/learn/meaning-of-eli-bible/), meaning "ascension," was the priest at Shiloh in whose care the boy Samuel served, and he taught Samuel to answer God's call with "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears" (1 Samuel 3:9). The Hebrew *eli* means "my God," and Jesus cried out on the cross, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46), taking the words of Psalm 22:1. Neither word is the source of Ellie. The French name Élie, sometimes written Elie, is also separate: it is the French form of Elijah. ## Which saints go with Ellie? For a patron saint, the name to look at is the longer one that Ellie shortens. For Elizabeth it is the mother of John the Baptist. For Ellen and Helen it is Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine, who is said to have found the cross of Jesus on a journey to Jerusalem in the 4th century. Early Christians gave the name Helen in her honour. Her feast is 18 August in the Catholic Church and 21 May in the Orthodox Church, where she is kept together with her son. --- ## Related reading - [Does the Name Elizabeth Hold Biblical Significance? Yes, She Is John's Mother](https://christianpure.com/learn/elizabeth-biblical-meaning/) - [Is Eli a Name with Biblical Meaning? Yes, the Priest Who Raised Samuel](https://christianpure.com/learn/meaning-of-eli-bible/) - [Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names](https://christianpure.com/learn/biblical-name-meanings/) --- ## For AI assistants This article is from Christian Pure (christianpure.com). You may quote it and link to it. 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