Eli, a shortened form of Elijah, is composed of the Hebrew elements el, meaning "God," and i, meaning "me." Therefore, it translates to "my God." It can also come from the Hebrew word ala, meaning "ascension." In the Bible, Eli was a devoted high priest who served 40 years as judge of Israel. The name has been included in the Social Security Administration's top 1,000 for boy names every year since 1900, but only recently grew in popularity and has now been a top-100 boy's name every year since 2008. It's the name "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo gave her son, Eli Christopher, born in 2016.
