Lovell
A masculine name of English origin meaning "wolf" or "little wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 2,211 living Americans carry the first name Lovell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Lovell today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lovell births was 1916 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lovell. 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 Lovell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 155,022 Americans
Peak year
1916
63 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,634
Tracked since 1886
Census
Lovell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,864 people with the first name Lovell, which placed it at #7,925 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
#7,925
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,864 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lovell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lovell is Black at 66.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.8%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Lovell 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 Lovell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American66.5% · 1,240
- White21.8% · 407
- Two or more races5.2% · 96
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 75
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 39
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Lovell
Lovell leans heavily male at 84.3% of total registrations, but 632 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lovell as a male name
- Ranked #4,634 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1916 (46 births)
Lovell as a female name
- Ranked #14,446 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1924 (24 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lovell leans strongly male. 1,598 people counted with this name were male (85.5%), compared with 270 female bearers (14.5%).
Popularity
Lovell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lovell 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 539 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
Lovell 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 Lovell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lovells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Alabama, Illinois, New York recorded the most babies named Lovell, while Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lovell
The name Lovell is an English surname that originated as a locational name from various areas in England. It is derived from the Old English words "luf," meaning love or affection, and "hyll," meaning hill. The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 12th century, when it was spelled Luvell or Lufell.
In the 13th century, the name appeared in several historical records, including the Pipe Rolls of Warwickshire in 1203, where it was spelled Luvell. During this period, it was common for people to take on locational surnames based on the place they were born or lived.
The name Lovell gained prominence in the 14th century when it was borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest recorded bearers was Sir John Lovell (c. 1330-1408), a prominent English military commander who served under Edward III during the Hundred Years' War. He was also a member of the Order of the Garter.
Another famous bearer of the name was Francis Lovell (c. 1456-1487), a close ally of Richard III and a key figure in the Wars of the Roses. He was one of the few supporters who remained loyal to Richard III after the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
In the 16th century, the name Lovell was associated with several individuals involved in the exploration and colonization of the New World. One notable example is Sir Robert Lovell (c. 1570-1629), an English explorer and colonist who was part of the Virginia Company and helped establish the Jamestown colony in 1607.
The name Lovell also appeared in literary works, such as in the play "The Tragedy of Richard III" by William Shakespeare, where a character named Lord Lovell is featured.
Other notable bearers of the name include James Lovell (1737-1814), an American educator and revolutionary who signed the Continental Association in 1774, and Jim Lovell (born 1928), an American astronaut who was the commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
People
Lovell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lovell 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
Lovell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lovell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,211 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lovell 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 155,022 US residents.
Is Lovell a common name?
We classify Lovell as "Rare". It ranks above 94.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,030 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lovell most popular?
The single biggest year for Lovell was 1916, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lovell is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lovell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,864 people with the name Lovell, or 0.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,925 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 Lovell 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 Lovell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lovell leans strongly male. 1,598 people counted with this name were male (85.5%), compared with 270 female bearers (14.5%). 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 Lovell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lovell is Black at 66.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.8%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Lovell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lovell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (1,240 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 Lovell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lovell a male name?
Yes, 84.3% of people registered as Lovell 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 Lovell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lovell 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 Lovell 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 Lovell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.