The Correct Spelling of Elliott/Eliot/Elliot/Eliott

How is this name properly spelled? It seems to me, an "Elliott" for almost five decades, that the majority of us spell our name with all seven letters, no matter how redundant that may seem.

One justification for the second "T" is in the pronounciation of similar words:

So, clearly, two t's are required to be sure that the "o" is short! Otherwise it looks French and is pronounced with a long "o" sound.

In recent years, the six-letter, one-T spelling has crept into respectibility. For example:

I went to Yahoo in June of 1999 and on Google and searched on the four spellings and enetered some of the hundreds of entries on each by hand.

Most significantly, I searched (using Google) for "elliott mccrory -elliot" and "elliot mccrory -elliott" and found that my name is spelled right about 11,900 times, and spelled wrong 4,270 times on the internet. So I will gladly jump to the conclusion that 40% of the entries that match "elliot" are SPELLED WRONG! So, there are only about 2 millions entires for Elliot that are properly spelled (IMHO).

Here is an interesting link into the Wikipedia. Note the lack of an entry to the dreaded six-letter spelling.

Some of the Ways This Proper Noun is Spelled

Elliott Elliot Eliott Eliot
Yahoo: search for "Elliott": 14.3 M sites Yahoo: search for "Elliot": 8.07 M sites Yahoo: search for "Eliott": 0.238 M sites Yahoo: search for "Eliot": 5.02 M sites
Google search for "Elliott": 10.6 M matches, one dictionary match ("Elliott, Iowa") Google search for "Elliot": 6.56 M matches Google search for "Eliott": 0.187 M matches, and a suggestion of "Did you mean "elliott"?" Google search for "Eliot": 4.04 M matches, five dictionary matches
Wikipedia Elliott Wikipedia Elliot Wikipedia Eliott Wikipedia Eliot
Aurora IL phonebook: 30 sirnames Aurora IL phonebook: 10 sirnames Aurora IL phonebook: 0 sirnames Aurora IL phonebook: 0 sirnames
Elliott McCrory (that's me) "Mama" Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas Eliott Hotel in the UK T. S. Eliot, famous poet (1819-1880)
Bill Elliott, Race car driver, NASCAR
BBC production House of Eliott" Eliot, Maine
Sean Elliott of the San Antonio Spurs (NBA) Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada
George Eliot, Author (1819-1880)
Elliott Sharp, rock musician The movie Billy Elliot, but see my tirade on this, above.

Elliott Gould, veteran actor. Elliot Goldenthan, composer
Eliot Hotel, Boston
Elliott Smith, Rock musician Trace Elliot, industrial amplifier manufacturer
Eliot House at Harvard University
David James Elliott, Actor Elliot S Maggin, Superman writer
Eliot Ness, Famous police man during the 20's
GWU Elliott School of International Affairs USS Elliot, Spruance and Kidd Class Destroyer (US Navy)
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University.
Elliott Cresson Medal. This is a particularly interesting study in the spelling. Many web sites use the 6-letter vairant, but in fact the seven-letter version is correct, as can be seen from the scan of one of the instances of this medal, here Elliot Lipeles, UCSD Physics Professor

Towns Called Elliott

Elliott Valve, Ltd


Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Former Prime Minitser of Canada. As with E. Gould, there is some controversy on how to spell his name. The Wikipedia wins, in my book!


Elliott Realty, SC


Elliott Lerman, President of the Tufts Alumni Association.


Chris Elliott, Comedian


Chris Elliott, London composer. Aggrees that the 7-letter version is correct!


Elliott Bay Book Store in Seattle


Elliott Bay Marina also in Seattle. I guess there must be an Elliott Bay in Seattle!


There is a chain of Delis in Illinois and Wisconsin called "Elliott Off Broadway"


There is also a rare spelling, Elyot, according to the Wikipedia.

Visit my SIST Home Page!


Elliott McCrory, June, 1999

Last modified: Tue May 1 11:36:54 CDT 2007