Jewel
A feminine name of English origin meaning "a precious ornament or gem".
Name Census estimates that about 19,510 living Americans carry the first name Jewel. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Jewel today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jewel births was 1920 (959 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jewel. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jewel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,568 Americans
Peak year
1920
959 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,402
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jewel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,580 people with the first name Jewel, which placed it at #1,622 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
#1,622
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
19,580 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jewel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jewel is White at 46.8%. The next largest groups are Black (35.2%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Jewel 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 Jewel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.8% · 9,169
- Black or African American35.2% · 6,888
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 1,389
- Two or more races4.9% · 961
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 905
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 268
Gender
Gender distribution for Jewel
Jewel leans heavily female at 88.8% of total registrations, but 5,233 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jewel as a male name
- Ranked #9,359 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1926 (149 births)
Jewel as a female name
- Ranked #1,402 in 2024
- 159 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (826 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jewel leans strongly female. 18,093 people counted with this name were female (92.4%), compared with 1,488 male bearers (7.6%).
Popularity
Jewel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jewel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 9,060 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
Jewel 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 Jewel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jewels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, Georgia recorded the most babies named Jewel, while South Dakota, Alaska, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 860 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jewel
The name Jewel is derived from the word "jewel," which comes from the Old French "jouel," meaning "a jewel or precious stone." The French term can be traced back to the Latin "jocale," meaning "plaything" or "jewel." Ultimately, the name has its roots in the Latin word "jocus," meaning "game" or "jest."
This name's connection to precious gems and stones reflects its association with rarity, beauty, and value. It has been used as a given name since the late 16th century, but its popularity surged in the late 20th century, particularly in the United States.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jewel can be found in the Bible's Book of Exodus, where it refers to the precious stones adorning the breastplate of the high priest. In ancient Hebrew, the word "jewel" was translated as "hoshen," which referred to these valuable gemstones.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jewel. One of the earliest was Jewel Kilcher, an American singer-songwriter born in 1974, who achieved widespread fame in the mid-1990s with her debut album, "Pieces of You." Her music blended elements of folk, pop, and country, and she was known for her introspective lyrics and soulful vocals.
Another famous Jewel was Jewel Plummer Cobb, an American biologist and academic born in 1924. She was a pioneer in cancer research and a leading figure in the fight against discrimination in science. Cobb served as the president of California State University, Fullerton, and was the first African American woman to lead a major university in the western United States.
In the realm of literature, Jewel Kilcher (1901–1997) was an American author and poet known for her works depicting life in rural Alaska. Her books, such as "The Reindeer Queen" and "The Wilderness World of John Muir," celebrated the beauty and resilience of the Alaskan landscape and its people.
The name Jewel has also been associated with royalty. Jewel Princess of France (1165–1187) was the daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was married to King William II of Sicily at a young age, but the union was short-lived due to her early death.
Lastly, Jewel Howard-Taylor (born 1963) is a Liberian politician and the current Vice President of Liberia. She has played a prominent role in her country's political landscape and has been praised for her efforts to promote women's rights and economic development.
People
Jewel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jewel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jewel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jewel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,510 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jewel 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 17,568 US residents.
Is Jewel a common name?
We classify Jewel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 46,571 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jewel most popular?
The single biggest year for Jewel was 1920, when 959 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jewel is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jewel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,580 people with the name Jewel, or 6.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,622 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 Jewel 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 Jewel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jewel leans strongly female. 18,093 people counted with this name were female (92.4%), compared with 1,488 male bearers (7.6%). 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 Jewel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jewel is White at 46.8%. The next largest groups are Black (35.2%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Jewel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jewel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.8% (9,169 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 Jewel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jewel a female name?
Yes, 88.8% of people registered as Jewel 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 Jewel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jewel 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 Jewel 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 share the name Jewel?
Want to know how many people have the name Jewel? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.