Ledell
A masculine name of English origin possibly meaning "from the dale by the ledge".
Name Census estimates that about 343 living Americans carry the first name Ledell. It is a predominantly male name (96.3% of registrations). The average person named Ledell today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ledell births was 1956 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ledell. 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
343
~ 1 in 999,284 Americans
Peak year
1956
20 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
1996 SSA rank
#6,589
Tracked since 1919
Census
Ledell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 373 people with the first name Ledell, which placed it at #25,428 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
#25,428
National first-name rank
People counted
373
373 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
85.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ledell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ledell is Black at 85.8%. The next largest groups are White (8.6%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Ledell 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 Ledell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American85.8% · 320
- White8.6% · 32
- Two or more races2.7% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Ledell
Ledell leans heavily male at 96.3% of total registrations, but 21 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ledell as a male name
- Ranked #6,867 in 1996
- 8 male births in 1996
- Peak: 1956 (20 births)
Ledell as a female name
- Ranked #6,589 in 1958
- 5 female births in 1958
- Peak: 1929 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ledell leans strongly male. 313 people counted with this name were male (84.8%), compared with 56 female bearers (15.2%).
Popularity
Ledell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ledell from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 126 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
Ledell 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 Ledell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ledells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas recorded the most babies named Ledell, while Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ledell
The given name Ledell has its origins in the English language. It is a variant spelling of the name Liddell, which emerged as a surname derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "lythel," meaning "little." The name's roots can be traced back to the Middle Ages in England.
Ledell's earliest recorded usage as a first name is relatively recent, with no known historical references or appearances in ancient texts or religious scriptures. The name's etymology suggests it was initially used as a surname, indicating a person of small stature or a little person.
While the name Ledell is not particularly common, there have been a few notable individuals throughout history who have borne this first name. One of the earliest recorded instances is Ledell Farrell, an American football player who played for the University of Southern California in the 1920s and later for the Los Angeles Buccaneers in the American Professional Football Association (now known as the National Football League).
Another individual of note is Ledell Lee, an American man who was convicted of murder and executed in Arkansas in 2017. His case garnered national attention due to concerns over the use of lethal injection drugs and the potential for innocence claims.
Ledell D. Zellers was an American artist and educator known for his landscape paintings and work as an art professor at the University of Oklahoma in the mid-20th century. He was born in 1917 and passed away in 1997.
In the field of music, Ledell Thomas was an American jazz drummer who performed with various big bands and orchestras in the 1940s and 1950s, including those of Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
Finally, Ledell Artis was an American actor who appeared in several films and television shows in the latter half of the 20th century, including roles in "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "In the Heat of the Night."
People
Ledell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ledell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ledell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ledell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 343 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ledell 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 999,284 US residents.
Is Ledell a common name?
We classify Ledell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 562 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ledell most popular?
The single biggest year for Ledell was 1956, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ledell is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ledell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 373 people with the name Ledell, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,428 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 Ledell 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 Ledell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ledell leans strongly male. 313 people counted with this name were male (84.8%), compared with 56 female bearers (15.2%). 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 Ledell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ledell is Black at 85.8%. The next largest groups are White (8.6%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Ledell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ledell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.8% (320 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 Ledell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ledell a male name?
Yes, 96.3% of people registered as Ledell 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 Ledell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ledell 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 Ledell 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 Ledell as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.