Mavel
A unique surname name of unknown origin and meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 21 living Americans carry the first name Mavel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mavel today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mavel births was 1990 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mavel. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Mavel. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
21
~ 1 in 16,321,635 Americans
Peak year
1990
7 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
1998 SSA rank
#15,706
Tracked since 1921
Census
Mavel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 292 people with the first name Mavel, which placed it at #30,039 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
#30,039
National first-name rank
People counted
292
292 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
80.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mavel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mavel is Hispanic at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.8%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Mavel 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 Mavel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino80.1% · 234
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 20
- Black or African American6.5% · 19
- White5.5% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
- Two or more races0.3% · 1
Popularity
Mavel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mavel from the 1920s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 12 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mavel 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 Mavel 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 Mavel
The name Mavel is believed to have originated from the Old French word "mavais" or "mavés", which means "bad" or "wicked". It likely emerged during the medieval period in France, sometime between the 11th and 14th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mavel can be found in the Chanson de Roland, an epic poem from the late 11th century that recounts the legendary Battle of Roncevaux Pass during the reign of Charlemagne. In this work, Mavel is mentioned as the name of a Saracen warrior who fought against the Frankish forces.
Another early reference to the name Mavel appears in the Roman de Renart, a satirical collection of fables from the 12th and 13th centuries that feature anthropomorphic animals as characters. In one of the stories, a cunning fox is given the name Mavel, possibly as a nod to its mischievous and deceitful nature.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the name Mavel was occasionally used, although it remained relatively rare. One notable historical figure who bore this name was Mavel de Caux, a Norman nobleman who lived in the late 12th century and participated in the Third Crusade under Richard the Lionheart.
In the 16th century, a French writer and philosopher named Mavel Benet gained some renown for his works on ethics and morality. Despite his provocative name, Benet's writings were generally well-received and influenced later thinkers of the Enlightenment period.
During the 17th century, a Dutch explorer named Mavel Janszoon van den Bogaert became one of the first Europeans to explore the interior regions of what is now known as South Africa. His detailed accounts of the indigenous Khoikhoi people and their way of life proved invaluable to later settlers and anthropologists.
People
Mavel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mavel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mavel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mavel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mavel 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 16,321,635 US residents.
Is Mavel a common name?
We classify Mavel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 40.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 27 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mavel most popular?
The single biggest year for Mavel was 1990, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mavel is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mavel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 292 people with the name Mavel, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,039 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 Mavel 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 Mavel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mavel leans strongly female. 277 people counted with this name were female (96.9%), compared with 9 male bearers (3.1%). 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 Mavel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mavel is Hispanic at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.8%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Mavel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Mavel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.1% (234 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 Mavel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mavel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mavel 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 Mavel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mavel 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 Mavel 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 Mavel?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Mavel at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.