Elijah rode a chariot of fire — Eli gets his own adventure

Where the name Elijah comes from

Elijah is Hebrew — Eliyyahu, usually translated as “my God is the Lord”. Its first famous bearer, the prophet of the Books of Kings, is one of the most cinematic figures in the whole Bible: fed by ravens beside the brook Cherith, calling down fire on Mount Carmel, and finally carried off in a whirlwind by that chariot of fire. Few names come with better source material for a boy who likes his stories big.

For centuries the name simmered quietly, a steady biblical classic rather than a fashion. Then, from the 1990s onward, American parents rediscovered it, and it has never looked back: Elijah has sat inside the top ten boys’ names in the United States for well over a decade and in recent years has ranked among the top five. That climb says something about how the name reads today — biblical but not stuffy, classic but not dusty, equally at home on a prophet and on a preschooler with a football under his arm.

It travels well, too. English kept Elijah close to the Hebrew; Greek and German smoothed the same name into Elias, Russian into Ilya, French into Élie. A boy named Elijah tends to discover cousins of his name wherever in the world he goes. He is in good company at home as well: Elijah McCoy, the engineer whose inventions were so trusted that buyers insisted on “the real McCoy”, and Elijah Wood, who carried the One Ring across Middle-earth, both prove the name works just as well below a title as above one.

What to call an Elijah

• Eli — The everyday classic, and the form most boys with this name actually answer to — at the kitchen table, on the playground, and whispered at lights-out. If your Elijah has been an Eli since day one, you can just as well make the book about Eli: you type the hero’s name yourself.
• Lij or Lije — The insider’s short form, rhyming with the middle syllable of Elijah. It has an old Americana flavour and is rare today — famously, it is what Elijah Wood’s friends call him. A good candidate for a nickname that belongs to just one grandad.
• EJ — When the middle name cooperates, initials take over: an Elijah John or Elijah Jack turns into EJ around the house and on the back of a football shirt. Snappy for shouting across a pitch.
• Elijah, in full — Saved for the moments that matter: first days of school, birthday cakes — and book covers. All three syllables at once tell a boy that this occasion, and this story, is a big one.