Drexel
A variant of the surname derived from an old English place name.
Name Census estimates that about 851 living Americans carry the first name Drexel. It is a predominantly male name (97.2% of registrations). The average person named Drexel today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Drexel births was 1914 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Drexel. 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
851
~ 1 in 402,767 Americans
Peak year
1914
29 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,854
Tracked since 1910
Census
Drexel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 808 people with the first name Drexel, which placed it at #14,559 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
#14,559
National first-name rank
People counted
808
808 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Drexel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drexel is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (29.6%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Drexel 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 Drexel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.0% · 469
- Black or African American29.6% · 239
- Two or more races5.6% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Drexel
Drexel leans heavily male at 97.2% of total registrations, but 40 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Drexel as a male name
- Ranked #6,920 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (27 births)
Drexel as a female name
- Ranked #4,854 in 1943
- 5 female births in 1943
- Peak: 1920 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Drexel leans strongly male. 751 people counted with this name were male (92.3%), compared with 63 female bearers (7.7%).
Popularity
Drexel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Drexel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 194 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Drexel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Drexel 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 Drexel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Drexels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Drexel
The name Drexel is believed to have originated from the Old German word "trahsil," which means "thrush" or a type of songbird. This name first emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, in various regions of what is now modern-day Germany and Austria.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Drexel can be found in a 14th-century manuscript from the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria. The document mentions a certain "Drexel der Vogler," which translates to "Drexel the Bird Catcher." This suggests that the name may have been associated with occupations related to birds or fowling.
During the Renaissance period, the name Drexel gained some prominence in the German states. One notable figure was Johannes Drexel (1494-1567), a renowned theologian and author from Bavaria. He wrote several influential works on Catholic doctrine and spiritual guidance.
In the 17th century, the Drexel family became prominent in the banking and finance industry in Germany and Austria. The most famous member was Francis Martin Drexel (1792-1863), a successful banker and philanthropist who founded the Drexel banking house in Philadelphia, USA.
Another historically significant individual with the name Drexel was Saint Katharine Drexel (1858-1955), an American heiress who devoted her life and fortune to establishing schools and missions for Native Americans and African Americans. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 2000.
In the 20th century, one of the most well-known figures with the name Drexel was Hubert R. Drexel (1906-1988), an American educator and businessman who served as the president of Drexel University in Philadelphia for over three decades, from 1945 to 1977.
It's worth noting that while the name Drexel has its roots in Germanic languages, it has also been adopted and used in other cultures and regions, particularly in the United States, due to the influence of notable individuals bearing this name.
People
Drexel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Drexel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Drexel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Drexel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 851 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Drexel 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 402,767 US residents.
Is Drexel a common name?
We classify Drexel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,433 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Drexel most popular?
The single biggest year for Drexel was 1914, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Drexel is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Drexel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 808 people with the name Drexel, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,559 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 Drexel 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 Drexel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Drexel leans strongly male. 751 people counted with this name were male (92.3%), compared with 63 female bearers (7.7%). 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 Drexel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Drexel is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (29.6%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Drexel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Drexel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.0% (469 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 Drexel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Drexel a male name?
Yes, 97.2% of people registered as Drexel 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 Drexel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Drexel 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 Drexel 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 Drexel as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.