I had always assumed ELO was an acronym of some kind, turns out it's the surname of the system's inventor; Arpad Elo. [0] And, according to Wikipedia, 1500 would be a mid-level player, so not really good, but certainly not beginner either.

> In general, a beginner is around 800, a mid-level player is around 1600, and a professional, around 2400.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpad_Elo