Ancel
An English masculine name derived from the French ancel, meaning "messenger" or "angel".
Name Census estimates that about 245 living Americans carry the first name Ancel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ancel today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ancel births was 1919 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ancel. 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.
People living today
245
~ 1 in 1,398,997 Americans
Peak year
1919
25 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2019 SSA rank
#7,678
Tracked since 1883
Census
Ancel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 387 people with the first name Ancel, which placed it at #24,748 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
#24,748
National first-name rank
People counted
387
387 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ancel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ancel is White at 50.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.7%) and Hispanic (19.9%). 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 Ancel 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 Ancel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.4% · 195
- Black or African American20.7% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino19.9% · 77
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 21
- Two or more races3.6% · 14
Popularity
Ancel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ancel from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 167 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Ancel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ancel 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 Ancel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ancels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Ancel, while Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ancel
The name Ancel originates from the Old French language and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Germanic name Anselm, which means "divine protection" or "God's helmet." The name gained popularity during the Carolingian dynasty in the 8th and 9th centuries AD.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Ancel can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of landowners and properties in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The name appears as a variant spelling of Anselm, indicating its use among the Norman nobility who settled in England after the Norman Conquest.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals bearing the name Ancel. One of the most famous was Ancel the Monk, a 12th-century Benedictine monk and historian from the Abbey of St. Riquier in Picardy, France. He is known for his chronicle, Chronicon Centulense, which documented the history of his monastery and the region.
Another prominent figure was Ancel Britten (1530-1587), an English composer and lutenist during the Renaissance period. He served as a musician in the court of Queen Elizabeth I and is renowned for his contributions to the development of the English lute song.
In the realm of literature, Ancel Feuerbach (1829-1880) was a German novelist and playwright. His works, including the novel Der Neue Tanhäuser (The New Tannhäuser), explored themes of romanticism and German mythology.
Moving into the modern era, Ancel Keys (1904-2004) was an American scientist renowned for his groundbreaking research on the Mediterranean diet and its impact on heart health. His work laid the foundation for our understanding of the relationship between diet and cardiovascular disease.
Finally, Ancel Nunn (1925-2011) was an American lawyer and civil rights advocate. He played a significant role in the desegregation of public schools in Oklahoma and was instrumental in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case that ended racial segregation in public schools nationwide.
People
Ancel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ancel 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
Ancel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ancel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 245 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ancel 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 1,398,997 US residents.
Is Ancel a common name?
We classify Ancel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 751 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ancel most popular?
The single biggest year for Ancel was 1919, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ancel is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ancel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 387 people with the name Ancel, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,748 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 Ancel 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 Ancel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ancel leans strongly male. 370 people counted with this name were male (95.4%), compared with 18 female bearers (4.6%). 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 Ancel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ancel is White at 50.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.7%) and Hispanic (19.9%). 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 Ancel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ancel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.4% (195 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 Ancel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ancel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ancel 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 Ancel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ancel 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 Ancel 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 Americans are named Ancel?
See how many people have the name Ancel on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.