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Elsie

Girl name · 1,118 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Elsie: 1,118 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to girls, peaking at 135 births in 2025.

Elsie began as a Scottish diminutive of Elizabeth, derived from the Hebrew Elisheba, meaning “God is my oath,” and later became a given name in its own right. One of its most celebrated bearers was Dr Elsie Inglis, the pioneering Scottish physician and suffragist who founded the Scottish Women’s Hospitals during World War I. The name also appears in nursery rhymes as Elsie Marley, while the iconic Borden dairy mascot Elsie the Cow has made the name familiar worldwide. Though no major place is directly named after a famous Elsie, the name shares its etymological root with countless towns and cities called Elizabeth, from New Jersey to South Australia. A lively variant is the Scottish form Elspeth, and Elsie remains a perennial favourite across Scotland.