Angel
A feminine given name of Greek origin meaning "messenger of God".
Name Census estimates that about 346,114 living Americans carry the first name Angel. It sits at #63 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Angel today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Angel births was 2006 (13,828 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Diane (346,112).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Angel. 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 Angel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
346K
~ 1 in 990 Americans
Peak year
2006
13,828 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#63
Tracked since 1888
Census
Angel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 348,579 people with the first name Angel, which placed it at #143 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
#143
National first-name rank
People counted
349K
348,579 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
115.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
76.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Angel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Angel is Hispanic at 76.2%. The next largest groups are White (12.4%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Angel 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 Angel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino76.2% · 265,698
- White12.4% · 43,283
- Black or African American7.3% · 25,464
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 6,980
- Two or more races1.4% · 4,971
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2,183
Gender
Gender distribution for Angel
Angel is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 360,783 total registrations, 261,068 (72.4%) were male and 99,715 (27.6%) were female.
Angel as a male name
- Ranked #63 in 2024
- 4,964 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (11,602 births)
Angel as a female name
- Ranked #498 in 2024
- 613 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (3,100 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Angel on both sides of the split. Of the 348,575 people counted with this name, 264,086 were male (75.8%) and 84,489 were female (24.2%).
Popularity
Angel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Angel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 119,775 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Angel 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 Angel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Angels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Angel, while Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,975 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Angel
The name Angel has its origins in the Greek word "angelos," which means "messenger" or "envoy." It is derived from the verb "angello," meaning "to deliver a message" or "to announce." This name has been in use since ancient times and has strong ties to various religious and cultural traditions.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, angels are understood as spiritual beings who serve as messengers and intermediaries between God and humanity. The name Angel was used to refer to these celestial messengers, and it gained widespread popularity across Europe and the Mediterranean region.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Angel can be found in the Bible. In the Book of Revelation, the apostle John mentions an "angel of the church" in several passages, indicating the name's association with religious figures.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Angel. One of the most famous was Angel de la Guarda (1490-1557), a Spanish explorer and conquistador who accompanied Hernán Cortés on his expedition to Mexico in the early 16th century.
Another prominent figure was Angel Rama (1926-1983), a Uruguayan writer, literary critic, and cultural theorist who made significant contributions to the study of Latin American literature and culture.
In the realm of religion, Angel Oliva (1542-1608) was a Spanish priest and missionary who played a crucial role in the evangelization efforts in the Philippines during the 16th century.
Angel Ganivet (1865-1898) was a Spanish writer, essayist, and diplomat who is widely regarded as one of the forerunners of the Generation of '98, a influential literary movement in Spain.
Angel Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and scholar who is considered one of the most prominent figures in the Spanish Golden Age of literature, alongside contemporaries like Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
The name Angel has maintained its popularity throughout history, crossing cultural and linguistic boundaries. Its association with celestial messengers and religious symbolism has contributed to its enduring appeal, making it a timeless and meaningful choice for parents seeking a name with depth and significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Angel
People
Angel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Angel 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
Angel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Angel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 346,114 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Angel 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 990 US residents.
Is Angel a common name?
We classify Angel as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 360,783 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Angel most popular?
The single biggest year for Angel was 2006, when 13,828 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Angel is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Angel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 348,579 people with the name Angel, or 115.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #143 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 Angel 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 Angel?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Angel on both sides of the split. Of the 348,575 people counted with this name, 264,086 were male (75.8%) and 84,489 were female (24.2%). 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 Angel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Angel is Hispanic at 76.2%. The next largest groups are White (12.4%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Angel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Angel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.2% (265,698 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 Angel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Angel a male name?
Yes, 72.4% of people registered as Angel 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 Angel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Angel 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 Angel 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 share the name Angel?
Want to know how many people have the name Angel? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.