Soul
The English word derived from French meaning the spiritual force within a person.
Name Census estimates that about 681 living Americans carry the first name Soul. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 58.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Soul today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Soul births was 2024 (108 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Soul. 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 Soul with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
681
~ 1 in 503,310 Americans
Peak year
2024
108 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,329
Tracked since 2000
Census
Soul in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 443 people with the first name Soul, which placed it at #22,452 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
#22,452
National first-name rank
People counted
443
443 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
30.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Soul
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Soul is Hispanic at 30.7%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and White (23.3%). 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 Soul 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 Soul at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino30.7% · 136
- Black or African American27.3% · 121
- White23.3% · 103
- Two or more races9.9% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.1% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Soul
Soul is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 686 total registrations, 402 (58.6%) were male and 284 (41.4%) were female.
Soul as a male name
- Ranked #2,329 in 2024
- 61 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (62 births)
Soul as a female name
- Ranked #3,369 in 2024
- 47 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (50 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Soul on both sides of the split. Of the 440 people counted with this name, 288 were male (65.5%) and 152 were female (34.5%).
Popularity
Soul: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Soul from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 458 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
Soul 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 Soul during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Souls live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Soul, while Virginia, Ohio, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Soul
The name Soul does not have a long or distinguished history as a given name. It is a relatively modern invention, likely arising in the 20th century as a neologism reflecting the spiritual concept of the "soul" as the essence or animating principle of a person. While the word "soul" has ancient roots in languages like Greek and Latin, it does not appear to have been used as a personal name until quite recently.
As a given name, Soul seems to be primarily an English language phenomenon, perhaps originating in the United States or other English-speaking countries. It is not derived from any particular language or cultural tradition, but rather is a direct borrowing of the common noun "soul" into use as a proper name.
There are no known references to the name Soul in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical records prior to the modern era. The earliest recorded examples of the name are likely from the late 20th century, as it gained popularity as a unique and spiritually evocative name choice.
A few notable individuals named Soul include:
1. Soul Khan, a Pakistani-American filmmaker and artist born in 1976.
2. Soul Brown, an American former professional basketball player born in 1969.
3. Soul Nyx, an American drag queen and activist born in 1983.
4. Soul Rebels, an American brass band formed in New Orleans in the early 1990s.
5. Soul Sneed, an American former professional basketball player born in 1972.
While the name Soul is not common, it has gained some traction in recent decades as a distinctive and meaningful name choice for parents seeking a name with spiritual or philosophical connotations.
People
Soul + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Soul as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Soul: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Soul?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 681 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Soul 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 503,310 US residents.
Is Soul a common name?
We classify Soul as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 686 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Soul most popular?
The single biggest year for Soul was 2024, when 108 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Soul is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Soul in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 443 people with the name Soul, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,452 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 Soul 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 Soul?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Soul on both sides of the split. Of the 440 people counted with this name, 288 were male (65.5%) and 152 were female (34.5%). 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 Soul?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Soul is Hispanic at 30.7%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and White (23.3%). 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 Soul most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Soul in the 2020 Census, accounting for 30.7% (136 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 Soul in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Soul a male name?
Yes, 58.6% of people registered as Soul 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 Soul still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Soul 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 Soul 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 are called Soul?
You can see how many people share the name Soul on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.