Ellis

Son of Elijah, the prophet's name in Tudor English compression.

Origin: North West, England
Famous bearer: William Webb Ellis (1806–1872), Rugby School pupil whose 1823 act gave the founding myth of rugby football; the Rugby World Cup trophy is named the Webb Ellis Cup
Register: English family

Territory of Ellis

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Ellis

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Ellis community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Ellis has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Ellis clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

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What does the Ellis name mean?

The history of Ellis

Ellis is densest in the north-west of England, Lancashire, Cheshire, the West Riding, and across Wales, where the patronymic ap Elis was current at the Tudor surname-fixation period. The biblical-prophet etymology made it a common Puritan surname in the 17th century, carrying it heavily into the New England diaspora. Ellis Island, the immigration-processing centre at New York Harbor (1892–1954), takes its name from Samuel Ellis, the late-18th-century Manhattan tavern-keeper who owned the island.

Henry Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), the Croydon-born physician and social reformer, wrote the Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1897–1928) and was among the foundational figures of modern sexology. Ruth Ellis (1926–1955) was the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom, by hanging at Holloway Prison for the murder of her lover David Blakely. Bret Easton Ellis (b. 1964), the Los Angeles-born novelist of Less Than Zero and American Psycho, brings the surname into contemporary American fiction.

Champions of the Ellis name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

William Webb Ellis
The Salford soldier's son and Rugby School foundation scholar who, in the foundation story of the modern game, picked up the ball and ran with it in 1823, becoming the namesake of running-with-the-ball football and the figure whose name is on the Rugby World Cup trophy.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Ellis name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk London in 1818Enter →

St Paul's, Covent Garden and the gaslit West End — Regency London, soot-hazed and horse-drawn.

Notable bearers of the Ellis name

William Webb Ellis (1806–1872), Rugby School pupil whose 1823 act gave the founding myth of rugby football; the Rugby World Cup trophy is named the Webb Ellis Cup
Henry Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), physician, sexologist
Ruth Ellis (1926–1955), last woman executed in the United Kingdom
Bret Easton Ellis (b. 1964), novelist (American Psycho)

Stories of Ellis

Webb Ellis picks up the ball at Rugby School
1823
On a soft November afternoon in 1823, on the long sloping playing field below the Doctor's Wall at Rugby School in Warwickshire, the sixteen-year-old fifth-form pupil William Webb Ellis, the son of a deceased dragoon officer of the 3rd Light Dragoons and a clergyman's daughter from the parish of Brownsover near Rugby, in the middle of a routine school football match between the senior boys' houses (the football match of the period was a heavily-improvised kicking-and-catching code that the Rugby boys had developed across the preceding decade, with substantial regional variation between the senior public schools), in defiance of the established Rugby School rules of the time (which permitted the catching and the carrying of the ball but required the catcher to retreat behind the line he had caught it on before kicking it forward), picked up the ball with both hands, tucked it under his arm, and ran forward with it across the half-way line and into the opposition territory. The act was, by the 1880 account of his fellow pupil Matthew Bloxam (the principal contemporary witness, who set down the recollection fifty-seven years after the event in the Rugby School magazine The Meteor), with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game. The act has been universally remembered ever since as the founding moment of rugby football. Rugby School adopted the carrying-and-running variant within fifteen years; the Rugby Football Union was founded in London in 1871 on the Rugby School rules; the international game of rugby football today is played in over a hundred countries with a global participation of approximately ten million players and a Rugby World Cup audience of approximately eight hundred million viewers. The Rugby World Cup trophy, contested at four-year intervals since 1987, is the Webb Ellis Cup.
Read the story →

Frequently asked

What does the surname Ellis mean?

From the personal name Elias (the prophet Elijah, in mediaeval Latin Elias), which produced the Welsh form Elis and the English form Ellis. As a surname Ellis is overwhelmingly English in the modern census, though the Welsh patronymic ap Elis is a parallel source, the Welsh and English Ellis pools have converged over time. The patronymic Ellison ('son of Elias') is a derivative formation of the same root. Ellis is densest in the north-west of England, Lancashire, Cheshire, the West Riding, and across Wales, where the patronymic ap Elis was current at the Tudor surname-fixation period.

Where does the Ellis family come from?

The Ellis family is rooted in North West and Yorkshire & the Humber, in England. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Lancashire and West Yorkshire. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Ellis family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Ellis name has been concentrated in Greater Manchester and London. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Ellis a England surname?

Yes, Ellis is a England surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is England, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Ellis surname?

Ellis is densest in the north-west of England, Lancashire, Cheshire, the West Riding, and across Wales, where the patronymic ap Elis was current at the Tudor surname-fixation period. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Ellis name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Ellis family known for?

Son of Elijah, the prophet's name in Tudor English compression. Ellis is densest in the north-west of England, Lancashire, Cheshire, the West Riding, and across Wales, where the patronymic ap Elis was current at the Tudor surname-fixation period.

Who is the most famous Ellis?

The best-known bearer of the Ellis name is William Webb Ellis (1806–1872), Rugby School pupil whose 1823 act gave the founding myth of rugby football; the Rugby World Cup trophy is named the Webb Ellis Cup. Other prominent figures of the family include Henry Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), physician, sexologist, Ruth Ellis (1926–1955), last woman executed in the United Kingdom and Bret Easton Ellis (b. 1964), novelist (American Psycho).

Who are some famous Ellises?

Notable bearers of the Ellis name include William Webb Ellis (1806–1872), Rugby School pupil whose 1823 act gave the founding myth of rugby football; the Rugby World Cup trophy is named the Webb Ellis Cup, Henry Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), physician, sexologist, Ruth Ellis (1926–1955), last woman executed in the United Kingdom and Bret Easton Ellis (b. 1964), novelist (American Psycho). Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Ellis family?

The Ellis family is associated with Webb Ellis picks up the ball at Rugby School. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Webb Ellis picks up the ball at Rugby School?

On a soft November afternoon in 1823, on the long sloping playing field below the Doctor's Wall at Rugby School in Warwickshire, the sixteen-year-old fifth-form pupil William Webb Ellis, the son of a deceased dragoon officer of the 3rd Light Dragoons and a clergyman's daughter from the parish of Brownsover near Rugby, in the middle of a routine school football match between the senior boys' houses (the football match of the period was a heavily-improvised kicking-and-catching code that the Rugby boys had developed across the preceding decade, with substantial regional variation between the senior public schools), in defiance of the established Rugby School rules of the time (which permitted the catching and the carrying of the ball but required the catcher to retreat behind the line he had caught it on before kicking it forward), picked up the ball with both hands, tucked it under his arm, and ran forward with it across the half-way line and into the opposition territory. The act was, by the 1880 account of his fellow pupil Matthew Bloxam (the principal contemporary witness, who set down the recollection fifty-seven years after the event in the Rugby School magazine The Meteor), with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game. The event is dated to 1823.

Where is the Ellis surname found today?

England is the primary historical home of the Ellis surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same England origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Ellis family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Ellis family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of England so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Ellis family today?

The seat for the head of the Ellis family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.