Burrel
A diminutive of the French surname Burelle, a habitational name from Normandy.
Name Census estimates that about 41 living Americans carry the first name Burrel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Burrel today is around 89 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Burrel births was 1921 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Burrel. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Burrel is about 89 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Burrels were born before 1947.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Burrel. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
41
~ 1 in 8,359,862 Americans
Peak year
1921
22 babies that year
Average age
89
years old
1948 SSA rank
#3,362
Tracked since 1884
Census
Burrel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 103 people with the first name Burrel, which placed it at #53,018 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
#53,018
National first-name rank
People counted
103
103 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Burrel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burrel is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Black (27.2%) and Hispanic (2.9%). 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 Burrel 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 Burrel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.0% · 67
- Black or African American27.2% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 3
- Two or more races1.9% · 2
Popularity
Burrel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Burrel from the 1880s through to the 1940s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 113 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Burrel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Burrel 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 Burrel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Burrels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Burrel
The given name Burrel is believed to have its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the 9th or 10th century. It is derived from the Old English words "burr" and "hill," collectively meaning a small hill or mound covered with brushwood or vegetation. This name likely originated among the Anglo-Saxons who inhabited parts of modern-day England during that time period.
Burrel was a relatively uncommon name in ancient times, and there are no known references to it in significant historical texts or religious scriptures from that era. However, some of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in medieval English records and documents from the 12th and 13th centuries.
One notable individual who bore the name Burrel was Burrel de Menithorpe, a 13th-century landowner and knight from Yorkshire, England, who lived around 1250. Another early recorded instance is Burrel de Burgh, a nobleman and military commander from the late 13th century, who fought in the Scottish Wars of Independence.
During the Renaissance period, the name Burrel gained some prominence in certain regions of Europe. A famous bearer of this name was Burrel Camby, a French philosopher and scholar who lived from 1465 to 1530. He was known for his writings on ethics and moral philosophy.
In the 17th century, Burrel Massingberd was a prominent English landowner and Member of Parliament, born in 1628 and died in 1696. He was known for his involvement in local politics and his role in the English Civil War.
Another notable figure was Burrel Wilks, an English artist and portraitist who lived from 1785 to 1854. He was renowned for his portraits of wealthy aristocrats and influential figures of his time.
People
Burrel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Burrel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Burrel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Burrel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 41 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Burrel 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 8,359,862 US residents.
Is Burrel a common name?
We classify Burrel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 51.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 339 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Burrel most popular?
The single biggest year for Burrel was 1921, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Burrel is about 89 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Burrel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 103 people with the name Burrel, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #53,018 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 Burrel 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 Burrel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Burrel leans strongly male. 98 people counted with this name were male (97.0%), compared with 3 female bearers (3.0%). 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 Burrel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burrel is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Black (27.2%) and Hispanic (2.9%). 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 Burrel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Burrel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.0% (67 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 Burrel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Burrel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Burrel 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 Burrel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Burrel 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 Burrel 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 have the name Burrel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.