Orvel
Uncommon variant of the Norman French name Orvile, meaning "Golden town".
Name Census estimates that about 227 living Americans carry the first name Orvel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Orvel today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orvel births was 1919 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orvel. 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
- • The typical person named Orvel is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Orvels were born before 1956.
People living today
227
~ 1 in 1,509,931 Americans
Peak year
1919
56 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1972 SSA rank
#3,871
Tracked since 1888
Popularity
Orvel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orvel from the 1880s through to the 1970s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 346 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
Orvel 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 Orvel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orvels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas recorded the most babies named Orvel, while Illinois, Alabama, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Orvel
The name Orvel is a uncommon given name of uncertain origin. It may be a variant spelling of the French name Orville, which is derived from the Old French word "orville" meaning "town of gold." The earliest known use of the name Orvel dates back to the late 19th century.
Orvel is not found in any ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical records from before the 19th century. This suggests that it is a relatively modern name, possibly a creative coinage or a misspelling of a similar-sounding name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the first name Orvel was Orvel Clyde, an American baseball player who was born in 1891 and played for the St. Louis Browns in the 1910s. Another early bearer of the name was Orvel E. Simons, an American politician who served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Idaho from 1939 to 1941.
In the 20th century, a few notable individuals with the first name Orvel include:
1. Orvel E. Moore (1913-1998), an American businessman and politician who served as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Kansas from 1957 to 1961.
2. Orvel Simons (1916-1985), an American baseball player who played for the Chicago White Sox in the 1940s.
3. Orvel Faubus (1910-1994), an American politician who served as the 36th Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967.
4. Orvel Otten (1924-2011), an American baseball player who played for the St. Louis Browns in the late 1940s.
5. Orvel E. Millsap (1922-2007), an American businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the Millsap Tractor Company in Missouri.
Despite its relatively obscure origins, the name Orvel has been borne by a handful of individuals throughout the 20th century, primarily in the United States. However, it remains an uncommon name with a somewhat mysterious etymology.
People
Orvel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orvel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Orvel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orvel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 227 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orvel 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 1,509,931 US residents.
Is Orvel a common name?
We classify Orvel 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, 1,157 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orvel most popular?
The single biggest year for Orvel was 1919, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orvel is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Orvel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Orvel 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.
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.