Jodell
A feminine name possibly derived from the French name Jodelle.
Name Census estimates that about 580 living Americans carry the first name Jodell. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jodell today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jodell births was 1956 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jodell. 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
580
~ 1 in 590,956 Americans
Peak year
1956
42 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
1984 SSA rank
#9,632
Tracked since 1930
Census
Jodell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 854 people with the first name Jodell, which placed it at #13,954 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
#13,954
National first-name rank
People counted
854
854 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jodell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jodell is White at 87.1%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Jodell 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 Jodell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.1% · 744
- Black or African American6.0% · 51
- Two or more races2.1% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 13
Popularity
Jodell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jodell from the 1930s through to the 1980s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 301 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jodell 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 Jodell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jodells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Jodell, while Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 61 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jodell
The name Jodell is a relatively modern name with no clear linguistic or cultural origin. It appears to be a combination of the name elements "Jo" and "dell," but its precise etymology is uncertain.
The earliest known use of the name Jodell dates back to the late 19th century, but it remained quite rare until the mid-20th century. One of the first recorded individuals with the name was Jodell Meeker, an American businessman and politician who lived from 1847 to 1925. He served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1887 to 1889.
Another early bearer of the name was Jodell Richardson, an American baseball player who was born in 1893 and played in the Negro leagues during the 1920s. He was known for his exceptional fielding skills and played for teams such as the Kansas City Monarchs.
In the 1940s, Jodell Hauser, an American actress, gained some fame for her roles in several popular Western films. She was born in 1922 and appeared in movies like "The Outlaw" (1943) and "Drifting Along" (1946) before her untimely death in a car accident in 1947.
One of the most notable individuals with the name Jodell was Jodell Brumit, an American singer and songwriter who was born in 1943. She co-wrote several hit songs for country music artists in the 1970s and 1980s, including "I'm Not That Lonely Yet" for Reba McEntire and "You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma" for David Frizzell and Shelly West.
More recently, Jodell Revenson Eckhart, born in 1957, is an American author and spiritual teacher known for her books on personal growth and self-discovery, such as "Spiritual Laws of Life" and "The Awakened Woman."
While the name Jodell remains relatively uncommon, it has been used across various parts of the United States and has been borne by individuals from different backgrounds and professions throughout the 20th century.
People
Jodell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jodell 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
Jodell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jodell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 580 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jodell 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 590,956 US residents.
Is Jodell a common name?
We classify Jodell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 813 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jodell most popular?
The single biggest year for Jodell was 1956, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jodell is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jodell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 854 people with the name Jodell, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,954 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 Jodell 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 Jodell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jodell leans strongly female. 803 people counted with this name were female (94.0%), compared with 51 male bearers (6.0%). 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 Jodell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jodell is White at 87.1%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Jodell most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jodell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.1% (744 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 Jodell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jodell a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jodell 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 Jodell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jodell 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 Jodell 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 Jodell as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.