Steele
Of English origin, meaning "made of steel", symbolizing strength and resilience.
Name Census estimates that about 2,868 living Americans carry the first name Steele. It is a predominantly male name (95.9% of registrations). The average person named Steele today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Steele births was 2017 (161 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Steele. 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 Steele with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Steele is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 123 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Steele is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.9K
~ 1 in 119,510 Americans
Peak year
2017
161 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,387
Tracked since 1920
Census
Steele in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,236 people with the first name Steele, which placed it at #6,974 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
#6,974
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,236 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Steele
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Steele is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Steele 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 Steele at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.1% · 1,836
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 138
- Two or more races6.2% · 138
- Black or African American3.0% · 66
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 26
Gender
Gender distribution for Steele
Steele leans heavily male at 95.9% of total registrations, but 123 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Steele as a male name
- Ranked #1,387 in 2024
- 135 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (147 births)
Steele as a female name
- Ranked #10,152 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Steele leans strongly male. 2,093 people counted with this name were male (93.6%), compared with 144 female bearers (6.4%).
Popularity
Steele: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Steele from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,083 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Steele remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Steele 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 Steele during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Steeles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Steele, while Wisconsin, South Carolina, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Steele
The name Steele is an English given name derived from the Old English word "stēle," which means "made of steel." It is believed to have originated as an occupational surname for someone who worked with steel, such as a blacksmith or armourer.
The earliest recorded use of the name Steele dates back to the late 12th century, when it appeared in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire in 1195 as "Ricardus le Stelere." This entry suggests that the name was already in use as a surname at that time.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Steele was Sir Steele de Buckingham, a 13th-century English knight who fought in the Barons' War against King Henry III. Another notable historical figure was Steele Sidesaddle (1430-1492), a Scottish courtier and diplomat who served as an ambassador to France during the reigns of James II and James III.
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729), an Irish writer, playwright, and politician who co-founded the influential periodical The Spectator with Joseph Addison. Steele was also a member of the British Parliament and a prominent figure in the Whig Party.
During the American Revolutionary War, John Steele (1758-1827) was a notable figure who served as a captain in the Continental Army and later became the first Governor of Mississippi Territory.
In the 19th century, Sir Thomas Steele (1788-1853) was a British soldier and colonial administrator who served as the Governor of the Falkland Islands and later became the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania).
Other notable individuals with the given name Steele include Steele Rudd (1858-1935), an Australian author and playwright best known for his humorous depictions of Australian rural life, and Steele Savage (1880-1955), an American actor and filmmaker who appeared in over 200 silent films.
People
Steele + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Steele 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
Steele: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Steele?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,868 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Steele 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 119,510 US residents.
Is Steele a common name?
We classify Steele as "Rare". It ranks above 95% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,000 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Steele most popular?
The single biggest year for Steele was 2017, when 161 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Steele is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Steele in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,236 people with the name Steele, or 0.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,974 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 Steele 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 Steele?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Steele leans strongly male. 2,093 people counted with this name were male (93.6%), compared with 144 female bearers (6.4%). 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 Steele?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Steele is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Steele most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Steele in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (1,836 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 Steele in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Steele a male name?
Yes, 95.9% of people registered as Steele 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 Steele still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Steele 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 Steele 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 named Steele?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.