Ezell
A masculine given name derived from the Hebrew name Ezekiel.
Name Census estimates that about 1,680 living Americans carry the first name Ezell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Ezell today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ezell births was 1922 (71 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ezell. 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
1.7K
~ 1 in 204,020 Americans
Peak year
1922
71 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,004
Tracked since 1897
Census
Ezell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,204 people with the first name Ezell, which placed it at #10,871 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
#10,871
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,204 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
87.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ezell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ezell is Black at 87.1%. The next largest groups are White (5.0%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Ezell 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 Ezell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American87.1% · 1,049
- White5.0% · 60
- Two or more races4.1% · 49
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Ezell
Ezell leans heavily male at 88.8% of total registrations, but 411 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ezell as a male name
- Ranked #11,311 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1951 (62 births)
Ezell as a female name
- Ranked #6,004 in 1954
- 5 female births in 1954
- Peak: 1927 (22 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ezell leans strongly male. 1,097 people counted with this name were male (91.6%), compared with 101 female bearers (8.4%).
Popularity
Ezell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ezell from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 617 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
Ezell 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 Ezell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ezells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Mississippi, Alabama, Texas recorded the most babies named Ezell, while North Carolina, California, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 117 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ezell
The name Ezell is believed to have originated from the Hebrew language and culture, with its roots dating back to ancient times. It is thought to be a variation or diminutive form of the name Ezekiel, which means "God strengthens" or "God will strengthen" in Hebrew.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Ezekiel can be found in the Book of Ezekiel, a book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Ezekiel was a Hebrew prophet who lived during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. His prophetic writings are contained within the book that bears his name.
The earliest known person with the name Ezell was Ezell Bland, an American baseball player who was born in 1909 and played professionally in the Negro leagues during the 1930s and 1940s. Another notable figure with this name was Ezell Crudup, an American blues singer and musician who was born in 1920 and is best known for his song "That's All Right," which was later covered by Elvis Presley.
In the field of politics, Ezell Lee Jr. was an American lawyer and judge who served as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas from 1967 to 1981. He played a significant role in the desegregation of public schools in Arkansas during the Civil Rights Movement.
Ezell Wesley Pearson, born in 1903, was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to South Korea from 1961 to 1964 and later as the Ambassador to the United Arab Republic (present-day Egypt) from 1964 to 1967.
Another historical figure with the name Ezell was Ezell Singleton, an American football player who played as a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Miami Dolphins and the New Orleans Saints in the 1970s and 1980s.
While the name Ezell may not be as common as some other names, it has a rich history and has been carried by notable individuals across various fields throughout the centuries, each contributing to the legacy and significance of this name.
People
Ezell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ezell 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
Ezell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ezell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,680 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ezell 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 204,020 US residents.
Is Ezell a common name?
We classify Ezell as "Rare". It ranks above 93% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,654 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ezell most popular?
The single biggest year for Ezell was 1922, when 71 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ezell is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ezell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,204 people with the name Ezell, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,871 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 Ezell 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 Ezell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ezell leans strongly male. 1,097 people counted with this name were male (91.6%), compared with 101 female bearers (8.4%). 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 Ezell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ezell is Black at 87.1%. The next largest groups are White (5.0%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Ezell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ezell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.1% (1,049 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 Ezell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ezell a male name?
Yes, 88.8% of people registered as Ezell 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 Ezell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ezell 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 Ezell 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 are called Ezell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.