Eloise

Eloise is the French form of Héloïse. Name dictionaries trace it to a Germanic compound whose elements mean hale or healthy and wide, and generally give the meaning as healthy or wide. A few sources also suggest a link with holy, so the original sense is not fully settled.

It is pronounced EL-oh-eez, with the stress on the first syllable, in both British and American English; the variant spelling Elouise is said the same way.

Héloïse, the twelfth-century scholar and abbess who corresponded with Peter Abelard, is the name's best-known historical bearer. In children's literature it belongs to the precocious six-year-old of Kay Thompson's Eloise books, set at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Among notable Americans, Eloise Wilkin is remembered for her illustrations in many Little Golden Books.

Eloise has been one of the fastest-rising girls' names in the United States. It ranked 527th in 2010, when 553 girls received it, entered the top 100 in 2022, and stood at 49th in 2025 with 4,251 births, more than in any earlier year. Before that resurgence its high point was 164th in 1921, and it fell as low as 4,208th in 1991.