Check out these cute elephant names! We’ve got hundreds of ideas for names inspired by the awesome elephant, giving you a fun way to name your pet. We’ve found names inspired by elephants’ color, their natural locations and even famous elephants.
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Most of us will never get an opportunity to name an actual living elephant. Unlike most of the species we write about on Squeaks & Nibbles, this isn’t one we recommend keeping as a pet! But maybe your kid has an elephant toy which needs an awesome name. Or you’ve got some eye catching elephant artwork, which needs a tongue-in-cheek nickname to do it justice. Whatever your reason for needing elephant names, we’ve got lots of ideas in this article to get you thinking.
Top 50 Elephant Names
To kick off, here are 50 of our all-time favorite elephant names:
- Ada
- Andromeda
- Argus
- Armstrong
- Aster
- Balboa
- Bernadette
- Briella
- Canyon
- Cassius
- Cliff
- Cole
- Colossus
- Cornelius
- Duchess
- Earl
- Emerson
- Ethan
- Galaxy
- Gerda
- Goliath
- Groot
- Hagrid
- Hera
- Hulk
- Janu
- Jupiter
- Justice
- Kapteyn
- Magnum
- Mammoth
- Maximus
- Maya
- Medusa
- Neville
- Norma
- Olympia
- Olympus
- Ria
- Ross
- Sequoia
- Serge
- Strike
- Tanya
- Tembo
- Thunder
- Titan
- Valentina
- Zarmina
- Zola
Choosing Elephant Names
When it comes to choosing the best elephant names, there aren’t really any rules. None of the wisdom we usually apply to picking pet names matters here! Such as don’t call a dog Kit, because it sounds too much like “sit”. So you can look to all kinds of places for inspiration. First, here are some traditional male and female options.
Female Elephant Names
Did you know that a female elephant is known as a cow? Here are some beautiful names you could choose for an elephant cow:
- Agnes
- Bertha
- Clarissa
- Davina
- Delphine
- Ethel
- Flora
- Gertrude
- Harriet
- Ilsa
- Juno
- Katrina
- Lady
- Lulu
- Mercy
- Nina
- Ophelia
- Persephone
- Queenie
- Rose
- Sal
- Tiggy
- Ursula
- Valerie
- Wanda
Male Elephant Names
A male elephant is known as a bull. Here are some handsome names for bull elephants:
- Aidan
- Bert
- Charlie
- Colin
- Dexter
- Eric
- Ernst
- Fred
- Gerald
- Harold
- Ian
- Jerry
- Jim
- Kevin
- Lucas
- Monty
- Nigel
- Ollie
- Oscar
- Paddy
- Ronan
- Russell
- Seb
- Theo
- William
Elephant Names Inspired By Their Color
Not so keen on human names? Or looking for something more creative? Not a problem. The next list of elephant names draws its inspiration from a different angle. We all know that elephants are gray. So names relating to the color gray, or evoking an image of grayness are a great choice for elephants. They’re fitting, yet no too obvious:
- Ash
- Axel
- Brumous
- Cirrus
- Dimity
- Dove
- Flint
- Foggy
- Joa
- Marble
- Misty
- Opal
- Pearl
- Pebble
- Pepper
- Plumbum
- Sepia
- Shadow
- Silver
- Sky
- Sooty
- Sterling
- Storm
- Stratus
- Virva
African Elephant Names
Another great place to look for meaningful elephant names is the countries that they come from. There are three species of elephant still alive today. Two of them – the African bush elephant and African forest elephant – are mostly found in central and western Africa.
They have been around for at least two million years as distinct species. But, they are both now endangered, according to the International Union for Nature Conservation. The forest elephant critically so. These names, drawn from Swahili and other African languages, pay tribute to the bush and forest elephants’ homeland:
For boy elephants:
- Abasi
- Adili
- Azizi
- Bahari
- Bakari
- Chui
- Dai
- Daudi
- Imani
- Jelani
- Kondo
- Mulele
- Nwabudike
- Pumbaa
- Rubani
- Sadiki
- Sefu
- Zahur
- Zubery
For girl elephants:
- Adia
- Avana
- Chriki
- Kaisa
- Kalifa
- Kamili
- Kiojah
- Murati
- Nema
- Penda
- Penha
- Ramla
- Salama
- Shani
- Subira
- Tambika
- Tisa
- Winda
- Zuwena
Asian Elephant Names
And what about the third elephant species? They’re up next! Asian elephants are native to countries including India, Nepal, Sumatra and Borneo. Like their African cousins, they are sadly endangered due to poaching, loss of habitat and disease.
They’re easily distinguished from African elephants because their ears are much smaller. So if you need an elephant name for a small-eared elephant, perhaps a name from Indian would suit them well.
For boys:
- Aarav
- Aditya
- Advik
- Arjun
- Armaan
- Dhruv
- Divyansh
- Ishaan
- Ivaan
- Kabir
- Krishna
- Mohammad
- Rahul
- Rehan
- Riaan
- Rudra
- Shaurya
- Siddharth
- Vivaan
- Veer
For girls:
- Amaira
- Aarya
- Ashi
- Anika
- Aahna
- Aarohi
- Alia
- Aditi
- Diya
- Fatima
- Inaaya
- Jaanvi
- Kavya
- Myra
- Mira
- Navya
- Naina
- Shreya
- Sara
- Samaira
Unusual Elephant Names
Our next category moves away from humans names altogether. These elephant names are unusual, memorable, and unique!
- Alton
- Bo
- Bram
- Collingwood
- Crash
- Embry
- Fossil
- Homburg
- Juniper
- Knox
- Laurel
- Minnie
- Mouse
- Norah
- Nelson
- Oak
- Peanut
- Pluto
- Sage
- Smidge
- Squeak
- Trumpet
- Vardo
- Woolly
- Ziggy
But if you don’t want to use an elephant name which needs explaining all the time, there’s one strategy to make sure people “get” your choice right away. And that’s using an established elephant name.
Famous Elephant Names
Our final category is elephant names which have already been made famous by elephants in songs, TV shows and movies. We like to think of them as tried, tested, and nostalgic:
- Babar
- Dumbo
- Ella
- Elmer
- Emily
- Heffalump
- Horton
- Manny
- Meena
- Nellie
- Snuffleupagus
- Stampy
Elephant Facts
Whatever elephant name you choose, it’s also fun to have some impressive elephant trivia at hand, to entertain people with. Like these gems:
- African bush elephants are the largest land mammal on earth. Adult bulls can grow over 10 feet tall and weigh over 6.5 tons!
- Asian Elephants are a bit smaller. They weigh up 4.5 tons. African forest elephants are smaller still! They only weigh up 3 tons. But still, you wouldn’t want to be trod on by one!
- Bull elephants’ tusks grow for their whole life.
- Elephants are one of the few species besides humans which can recognize themselves in a mirror. The others are apes and dolphins.
- Elephants use low frequency rumbles to communicate with other elephants up to 6 miles away. These noises are so low in pitch that humans can’t hear them at all, which is known as infrasonic.
- Several African savannah tree species rely on elephants to disperse their seeds by eating their fruit and pooping out undigested seeds later. Zoologists estimate that a single elephant can disperse over 3,000 seeds a day like this, and deposit them up to 40 miles away from the parent tree.
- The most popular names in India between 2010 and 2019, Times of India.
Now It’s Time For You To Choose
Did you find a favorite elephant name on one of our lists? Tell us all about the elephant you’re naming, and which name you settled on in the comments section down below!
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Cool names. Love them all
My elephants name is Kabir.
My elephant 🐘 is called Nellie