Edell
A feminine name of English origin meaning "prosperous in war".
Name Census estimates that about 32 living Americans carry the first name Edell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Edell today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Edell births was 1916 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Edell. 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 Edell is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Edells were born before 1956.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Edell. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
32
~ 1 in 10,711,073 Americans
Peak year
1916
22 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1956 SSA rank
#4,102
Tracked since 1912
Census
Edell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 182 people with the first name Edell, which placed it at #40,748 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
#40,748
National first-name rank
People counted
182
182 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
59.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Edell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edell is Black at 59.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.7%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Edell 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 Edell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American59.9% · 109
- White18.7% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino11.5% · 21
- Two or more races5.5% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Edell
Edell leans heavily female at 84.7% of total registrations, but 45 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Edell as a male name
- Ranked #4,102 in 1956
- 5 male births in 1956
- Peak: 1929 (9 births)
Edell as a female name
- Ranked #5,970 in 1954
- 5 female births in 1954
- Peak: 1927 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Edell on both sides of the split. Of the 176 people counted with this name, 81 were male (46.0%) and 95 were female (54.0%).
Popularity
Edell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Edell from the 1910s through to the 1950s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 133 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Edell 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 Edell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Edells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. South Carolina, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Edell, while Texas, Georgia, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Edell
The name Edell has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically as a variant of the Old English name Ædel or Æthel, which means "noble" or "prince." This name can be traced back to the 5th century CE and was commonly used among the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of what is now England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Edell can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record compiled in the late 9th century CE. The name is mentioned in an entry from the year 656 CE, referring to a nobleman named Edell who was involved in a conflict between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria.
During the Middle Ages, the name Edell was particularly popular among the nobility and upper classes of English society. It was often associated with individuals of high social standing and prestige. One notable figure from this period was Edell of Warwick, a 12th-century nobleman who served as a military commander and advisor to King Henry II.
As the name spread across Europe, it also gained popularity in other regions, such as Scandinavia. In Iceland, the name Edell appeared in the Icelandic sagas, a collection of medieval literary works that documented the lives and adventures of notable figures from the Viking era. One such individual was Edell Eiriksson, a 10th-century explorer and trader who is believed to have traveled as far as Greenland and North America.
In the realm of religious history, the name Edell was also used by several prominent figures. One example is Saint Edell of Polesworth, an 8th-century English abbot and missionary who played a significant role in the spread of Christianity in the Midlands region of England.
Other notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Edell include:
1. Edell the Scribe (c. 1200 - c. 1270), a renowned English calligrapher and illuminator of manuscripts in the 13th century.
2. Edell of Flanders (c. 1330 - 1386), a Flemish painter and manuscript illuminator who worked in the court of King Charles V of France.
3. Edell Boleyn (c. 1475 - 1536), an English courtier and uncle of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.
4. Edell Digby (1578 - 1623), an English Catholic conspirator who was executed for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
5. Edell Bancroft (1679 - 1756), an English clergyman and theologian who served as the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1677 until his death.
While the name Edell has become less common in modern times, its rich historical roots and associations with nobility, religious figures, and notable individuals throughout various eras underscore its enduring legacy as a name with a distinct cultural and linguistic heritage.
People
Edell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Edell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Edell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Edell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Edell 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 10,711,073 US residents.
Is Edell a common name?
We classify Edell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 47.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 294 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Edell most popular?
The single biggest year for Edell was 1916, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Edell is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Edell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 182 people with the name Edell, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,748 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 Edell 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 Edell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Edell on both sides of the split. Of the 176 people counted with this name, 81 were male (46.0%) and 95 were female (54.0%). 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 Edell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edell is Black at 59.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.7%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Edell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Edell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.9% (109 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 Edell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Edell a female name?
Yes, 84.7% of people registered as Edell in the SSA data are female. 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 Edell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Edell 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 Edell 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 Edell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.