Hendel
A short form of Germanic names containing "-handus" meaning "hand".
Name Census estimates that about 83 living Americans carry the first name Hendel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hendel today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hendel births was 2011 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hendel. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hendel. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
83
~ 1 in 4,129,570 Americans
Peak year
2011
11 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,128
Tracked since 1999
Census
Hendel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 181 people with the first name Hendel, which placed it at #40,888 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
#40,888
National first-name rank
People counted
181
181 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hendel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hendel is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.2%) and Black (8.8%). 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 Hendel 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 Hendel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.9% · 141
- Hispanic or Latino12.2% · 22
- Black or African American8.8% · 16
- Two or more races1.1% · 2
Popularity
Hendel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hendel from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 59 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hendel 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 Hendel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hendels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Hendel
The name Hendel originates from the German language and has its roots in the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old German word "hant," which means "hand," and is related to the Middle Dutch word "handel," meaning "trade" or "commerce."
The name Hendel was likely associated with individuals involved in trade, craftsmen, or merchants during the medieval period in German-speaking regions of Europe. It may have been a descriptive surname initially, referring to someone whose occupation involved using their hands or engaging in trade.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hendel can be found in the 14th century, when a merchant named Johannes Hendel was mentioned in a document from the city of Lübeck, Germany. This document, dated 1349, provides evidence of the name's usage during that time period.
In the 16th century, a notable figure bearing the name Hendel was Georg Hendel, a German composer and organist born in Nuremberg in 1585. He is recognized for his contributions to the development of the organ repertoire and his influence on the Baroque music tradition.
Another significant individual with the name Hendel was Johann Christoph Hendel, a German lawyer and writer who lived from 1688 to 1755. He is best known for his legal treatises and his work as a jurist in the city of Frankfurt.
In the 18th century, a prominent figure named Georg Friedrich Hendel was a German philosopher and theologian. Born in 1721 in Saxony, he is renowned for his writings on metaphysics and his contributions to the Enlightenment movement in German philosophy.
One of the most famous individuals with the name Hendel was the renowned Baroque composer Georg Friedrich Händel, better known as George Frideric Handel. Born in 1685 in Halle, Germany, he is celebrated for his operas, oratorios, and instrumental works, including the iconic "Messiah." Handel's compositions had a lasting impact on the development of Western classical music.
These examples illustrate the historical presence and significance of the name Hendel across various fields, including trade, music, law, philosophy, and theology, primarily within the German-speaking regions of Europe from the Middle Ages to the 18th century.
People
Hendel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hendel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hendel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hendel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 83 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hendel 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 4,129,570 US residents.
Is Hendel a common name?
We classify Hendel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 84 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hendel most popular?
The single biggest year for Hendel was 2011, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hendel is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hendel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 181 people with the name Hendel, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,888 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 Hendel 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 Hendel?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hendel on both sides of the split. Of the 184 people counted with this name, 47 were male (25.5%) and 137 were female (74.5%). 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 Hendel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hendel is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.2%) and Black (8.8%). 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 Hendel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hendel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.9% (141 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 Hendel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hendel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hendel 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 Hendel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hendel 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 Hendel 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 common is the name Hendel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.