Joeli
A Biblical name of Hebrew origin possibly meaning "Jehovah is God".
Name Census estimates that about 226 living Americans carry the first name Joeli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Joeli today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joeli births was 1969 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joeli. 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 Joeli with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
226
~ 1 in 1,516,612 Americans
Peak year
1969
15 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,691
Tracked since 1969
Census
Joeli in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 331 people with the first name Joeli, which placed it at #27,567 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
#27,567
National first-name rank
People counted
331
331 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joeli
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joeli is White at 48.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.7%). 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 Joeli 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 Joeli at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.6% · 161
- Hispanic or Latino36.9% · 122
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 19
- Two or more races4.5% · 15
- Black or African American3.3% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Joeli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joeli from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 96 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joeli 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 Joeli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joeli
The name Joeli is believed to have its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is considered a variation of the name Joel, which is derived from the Hebrew word "Yoʼel," meaning "Yahweh is God." The name Joeli is thought to have emerged as a diminutive or affectionate form of Joel, adding the "i" suffix.
In the biblical context, the name Joel is found in the Old Testament as the name of one of the twelve minor prophets. The Book of Joel, which bears his name, is attributed to a prophet who lived in the kingdom of Judah during the post-exilic period, likely in the 5th century BCE. This biblical association adds a religious significance to the name Joeli.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joeli can be traced back to the 16th century. In 1563, a man named Joeli Blau was born in the city of Strasbourg, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire (modern-day France). He was a renowned mathematician and astronomer who contributed significantly to the development of logarithms and trigonometric tables.
Another notable figure with the name Joeli was Joeli Bento Pereira (1839-1909), a Brazilian writer, journalist, and poet. He was a prominent figure in the Brazilian Romantic movement and is remembered for his contributions to the literary and cultural landscape of Brazil during the 19th century.
In the 20th century, Joeli Viţu (1897-1949) was a Romanian poet and translator. He played a significant role in the modernist literary movement in Romania and was known for his translations of works by prominent poets such as Walt Whitman and Charles Baudelaire.
Joeli Naau (1921-1999) was a Nauruan politician and educator. He served as the Speaker of the Nauruan Parliament and played a crucial role in the development of education on the island nation of Nauru.
Joeli Chan (born 1941) is a Marshallese politician and diplomat. She served as the first female President of the Marshall Islands from 2016 to 2020 and was a prominent figure in advocating for environmental protection and climate change awareness in the Pacific region.
While the name Joeli has its roots in Hebrew culture and biblical references, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and regions throughout history. These examples showcase the diverse backgrounds and contributions of individuals who have borne this name over the centuries.
People
Joeli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joeli 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
Joeli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joeli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 226 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joeli 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 1,516,612 US residents.
Is Joeli a common name?
We classify Joeli as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 232 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joeli most popular?
The single biggest year for Joeli was 1969, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joeli is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joeli in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 331 people with the name Joeli, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,567 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 Joeli 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 Joeli?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joeli leans strongly female. 283 people counted with this name were female (88.2%), compared with 38 male bearers (11.8%). 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 Joeli?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joeli is White at 48.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.7%). 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 Joeli most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joeli in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.6% (161 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 Joeli in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joeli a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joeli 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 Joeli still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joeli 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 Joeli 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 Joeli?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Joeli at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.