Akiel
A variant of the Arabic name Akil meaning "wise" or "intelligent".
Name Census estimates that about 128 living Americans carry the first name Akiel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Akiel today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Akiel births was 1995 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Akiel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Akiel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
128
~ 1 in 2,677,768 Americans
Peak year
1995
10 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,976
Tracked since 1992
Census
Akiel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 172 people with the first name Akiel, which placed it at #42,074 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#42,074
National first-name rank
People counted
172
172 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Akiel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Akiel is Black at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Akiel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Akiel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.3% · 133
- Hispanic or Latino10.5% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.2% · 9
- White4.7% · 8
- Two or more races2.3% · 4
Popularity
Akiel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Akiel from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 44 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Akiel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Akiel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Akiel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Akiel
The name Akiel is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name Achiel, which means "brother of God" or "God is brother." The name first appeared in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically in the Book of Numbers, where Achiel is mentioned as the son of Gilead and the grandson of Machir.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Akiel dates back to the 13th century AD, when it was used by Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula. During this period, the name was sometimes spelled as Achiel or Akhiel, reflecting its Hebrew roots.
One of the earliest known historical figures to bear the name Akiel was Akiel ben Joseph, a prominent Sephardic Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Spain during the 14th century. He was known for his contributions to the study of Jewish law and authored several works on religious topics.
In the 16th century, an Italian Jew named Akiel Lupo gained recognition for his skills as a physician and philosopher. He practiced medicine in Venice and wrote extensively on topics related to medicine, philosophy, and Jewish theology.
Another notable figure with the name Akiel was Akiel Aben Amar, a 17th-century Moroccan Jewish scholar and poet. He was celebrated for his mastery of Hebrew poetry and his contributions to the literary tradition of the Maghreb region.
In the 19th century, Akiel Salomon was a prominent French-Jewish industrialist and philanthropist. He founded a successful textile manufacturing company and was known for his charitable works, particularly his support for educational institutions and Jewish organizations.
A more recent historical figure with the name Akiel was Akiel Bensadon, a Moroccan-Israeli painter and artist who lived from 1912 to 1996. He was known for his vibrant and colorful paintings that depicted scenes from Moroccan Jewish life and culture.
While the name Akiel has its roots in the Hebrew language and Jewish tradition, it has also been adopted by individuals of various cultural backgrounds over the centuries. However, its origins and historical connections to the biblical name Achiel have remained a consistent part of its meaning and significance.
People
Akiel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Akiel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Akiel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Akiel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 128 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Akiel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,677,768 US residents.
Is Akiel a common name?
We classify Akiel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 130 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Akiel most popular?
The single biggest year for Akiel was 1995, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Akiel is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Akiel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 172 people with the name Akiel, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,074 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Akiel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Akiel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Akiel leans strongly male. 168 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 6 female bearers (3.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Akiel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Akiel is Black at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Akiel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Akiel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.3% (133 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Akiel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Akiel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Akiel in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Akiel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Akiel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Akiel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Akiel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.