Randel
A masculine English given name from an Old English surname meaning "wolf shield".
Name Census estimates that about 2,840 living Americans carry the first name Randel. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Randel today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Randel births was 1957 (128 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Randel. 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
2.8K
~ 1 in 120,688 Americans
Peak year
1957
128 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,696
Tracked since 1914
Census
Randel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,849 people with the first name Randel, which placed it at #5,834 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
#5,834
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,849 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Randel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Randel is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Black (7.2%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Randel 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 Randel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.5% · 2,293
- Black or African American7.2% · 204
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 155
- Two or more races3.5% · 99
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 34
Gender
Gender distribution for Randel
Out of the 3,676 babies given the name Randel since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Randel as a male name
- Ranked #13,696 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1957 (128 births)
Randel as a female name
- Ranked #14,944 in 1992
- 5 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1986 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Randel leans strongly male. 2,787 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 60 female bearers (2.1%).
Popularity
Randel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Randel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 1,104 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
Randel 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 Randel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Randels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Texas, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Randel, while Virginia, Colorado, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 52 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Randel
The name Randel is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old High German name "Randolf" or "Randwulf," which means "rim wolf" or "shield wolf." It is a compound name formed from the words "rand" (meaning "rim" or "shield") and "wulf" (meaning "wolf").
The name first appeared in the early Middle Ages, around the 6th to 8th centuries, and was commonly used among the Germanic tribes that settled in various parts of Europe. It gained popularity during the Frankish period and was widely used by nobility and commoners alike.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Randel can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, a collection of medieval documents from the Kingdom of Saxony, where a certain "Randel von Meissen" is mentioned in the year 1174.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Randel. One of the most famous was Randel de Gernon (c. 1050 - c. 1120), a Norman nobleman who fought alongside William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. He was later granted extensive lands in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
Another prominent figure was Randel Holme (1601 - 1659), an English genealogist and heraldic writer who authored the famous work "The Academy of Armory." His work is considered a valuable resource for understanding the history and symbolism of heraldry in England.
In the realm of art, Randel Coates (1892 - 1962) was an American painter known for his landscape and still-life paintings. He was a member of the National Academy of Design and his works are held in several prestigious collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Randel Everett Gallion (1918 - 2000) was an American academic and civil rights activist who played a significant role in desegregating higher education in the United States. He served as the first African American president of Alabama State University from 1962 to 1983.
Randel Sheppard (1882 - 1967) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. He made important contributions to the field of labor law and was known for his fair and impartial rulings.
People
Randel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Randel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Randel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Randel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,840 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Randel 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 120,688 US residents.
Is Randel a common name?
We classify Randel as "Rare". It ranks above 95% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,676 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Randel most popular?
The single biggest year for Randel was 1957, when 128 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Randel is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Randel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,849 people with the name Randel, or 0.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,834 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 Randel 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 Randel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Randel leans strongly male. 2,787 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 60 female bearers (2.1%). 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 Randel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Randel is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Black (7.2%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Randel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Randel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.5% (2,293 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 Randel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Randel a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Randel 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 Randel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Randel 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 Randel 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 Randel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.