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Elif

Girl name · 26 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Elif: 26 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to girls, peaking at 6 births in 2021.

Rooted in Turkish and ultimately Arabic, Elif means "slender" or "tall," evoking the elegant, upright shape of the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, alif. The name is most famously borne by the contemporary Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate in literature Orhan Pamuk's fictional character Elif, though a prominent real-life bearer is the Dutch-Turkish politician Elif Işık. While the name does not directly map onto a Scottish place, its spelling and sound are shared with the Scottish Gaelic name Eilidh, which means "light" or "shining one," creating a charming phonetic bridge between cultures. Elif has steadily grown in popularity among Scottish parents since the early 2000s, reflecting the country's multicultural naming landscape.