The origins of Eli

The name Eli \e-li\ is pronounced EE-lye.

It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "ascended; my God; on high".

Biblical: Eli was a high priest who judged Israel for 40 years and who trained the young prophet Samuel (son of Hannah) . Eli abruptly appears in the biblical narrative, when Hannah, who is childless, prays to God for a child. He blesses her after she promises the child to God.

Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, which greatly reduced the labor of picking cotton seeds. This was one of the key inventions of the industrial revolution and shaped the economy of the antebellum South.

Eli, a nickname for a Yale University student, after Yale benefactor and namesake Elihu "Eli" Yale.