The baby name Elska is wildly rare, but with a fascinating story and sound.
Thanks to Juniper for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
IS ELSKA A FORM OF ELIZABETH?
At first glance, the baby name Elska looks like a rare nickname for Elizabeth or Elisabeth.
After all, Elsa is familiar – powerfully familiar, thanks to Frozen. There’s Elise and Eliza and so on.
Elisabeth with an ‘s’ is more common in French, German, and plenty of other European languages. The -ka ending is heard in Slavic languages. Shorten Elisabeth to Elsa, add a -ka, and you’ll arrive at Elska.
The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources notes that Elzka, Elzca, and Elska were heard in the Czech Republic as a form of Elizabeth in the fourteenth century. So at least sometimes, Elska comes from Elizabeth.
IS ELSKA A FORM OF ADELAIDE?
Adelaide has a history to rival the evergreen Elizabeth, and the name has a long and varied history of use. Dozens of names are derived from noble, saintly, Germanic Adalheidis.
One of those forms is Elke, a Dutch nickname for Adelaide. Elska is close, but it doesn’t seem to be a first name directly related to Adelaide – at least not in the written record.
WHAT DOES ELSKA MEAN?
But is the baby name Elska only an uncommon nickname?
Look up Elska in a dictionary, and a different origin emerges:
From Old Norse elska, from Proto-Germanic *aliskanan (“to care for, cultivate, cherish”)
In Old Norse, elska meant love, and the word remains in use in Icelandic and other languages derived from Old Norse.
We think of Norwegian as one language, but there are actually some differences. (Thanks to Ingrid’s comment for helping me unravel this.) Bokmål is far more common, but Nynorsk is also in use, preferred by about 10% of the population. Elska means love in Nynorsk.
Nordic Names lists it only as a horse name. If it is used in Scandinavia as a given name today, it’s quite rare.
MORE ELSKAS
Real life people named Elska are pretty rare. But the word has found some use in contemporary circles.a
First, there is a magazine called Elska. The title comes from the Icelandic word, though the magazine itself is based in the US. It’s been around since 2015. Founder and photographer Liam Campbell travels to different cities to profile men in the LBGTQ community.
It’s sometimes described as a travel bucket list/LGBTQ travellers guide. Campbell’s visited all over the US, of course, but also Turkey, Brazil, and Thailand. Paris, France – but also Lyon, France and Brussels, Belgium. It’s praised for the way it tells the personal story behind each man profiled. The Advocate called it the “nicest, most sincere” magazine ever created.
Nothing about that makes Elska a more compelling baby name, but it is the top Google result.
Here’s another one that’s more child-focused: a sweet little preschool television series set at the Arctic Circle titled Elska. The show marries real life Arctic scenes with fanciful destinations like the Land of Lost Socks. Main character Elska is accompanied by a CGI polar bear.
That show might shift our perception of Elska as a potential child’s name … except it’s still very much in development, and might never be produced.
Still, the images behind the series – they call it “playful minimalism” – highlight Elska’s Scandi sensibility and appeal.
Look hard, and the name appears in a few more places:
- Winnipeg-born aspiring actress/designer named Elska Swandel
- A jewelry brand
- A fictional horse in the children’s book series “The Horse Diaries”
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME ELSKA?
The baby name Elska has never been given to five children born in the US in any single year.
A handful of women appear in US Census records with the name Elska. They might’ve been born elsewhere, or their birth name might have been Elizabeth.
In any case, that’s about as unusual as a name gets.
RICH WITH POTENTIAL
On paper, it’s easy to argue that the baby name Elska isn’t a given name at all.
Except it sounds like it could – and maybe should – be a name. And we know that it has been used in the past.
Like Amanda, Esme, Carys, Amoret, and more, the name shares the appealing meaning love.
Scandinavian names have played a small part in recent trends, thanks to everything from Vikings to How to Train Your Dragon. If Astrid can catch on, why not Elska?
With a brisk, modern sound and sparky sensibility, Elska feels like a name that merits a closer look.
What do you think of the baby name Elska?
First published on October 22, 2015, this post was revised on March 11, 2025.
I met a woman today who had a horse named Elska. The horse was an Icelandic horse and she said that Elska is a very common name for Icelandic horses (apparently in Iceland they have the same horses because there are few who can survive on the sparce vegetation and cold temperatures so the lady told me). She said the horses are named Elska because it does mean “love” and is used in an endearing way like “sweetie”.
That’s so cool – thanks, Em!
I have an Icelandic mare named Elska…. Icelandic horse names usually include “fra” or “from” and then the farm on which they were bred and raised. My Elska’s full name is “Elska fra Bluegrass.” She is as sweet as she can be. I am happy to learn more about the origin of her name.
Our daughter is Elska chosen as coming from the Norwegian for “love” and I had never heard of it from any of those other sources. Not that it’s definitive or anything, but it’s how these parents picked it.
I also chose Elska for my daughter (who is now 3 years old) it’s the Icelandic spelling of the Norwegian word for love.
It’s funny that this name is so rare, it’s been in my personal top three for years! I remember reading Cynthia Voigt’s chilling, pseudo-medieval YA novel “Elske” as a teenager and being blown away by the character and her name. I’m not sure if I would use the e or a spelling, but I think it’s safe to say we’ll be using Elska in some form if we have girls 🙂 I think it’s beautiful and it will assuage my husband’s disappointment in losing family name Elsa to Frozen!
A word of warning though to anyone considering getting creative with the spelling: similar sounding “Ilska” means anger!
I really like it! I have a daughter Astrid so I like the Scandinavian names. Sadly, it would sound terrible with our last name so no Elskas in my future (not that there would be anyway!), but it would be super to meet one.