Yentl
A Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew name Yenṭe, meaning "She will praise".
Name Census estimates that about 48 living Americans carry the first name Yentl. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Yentl today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yentl births was 1985 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yentl. 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 Yentl. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
48
~ 1 in 7,140,715 Americans
Peak year
1985
13 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
1988 SSA rank
#9,233
Tracked since 1984
Popularity
Yentl: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Yentl 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 Yentl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 0 | 51 | 51 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Yentl
The name Yentl is of Yiddish origin, derived from the Hebrew name Yechiel, meaning "God lives." This name can be traced back to the Middle Ages in Central and Eastern Europe, where it was commonly used among Ashkenazi Jewish communities.
Yentl is believed to have been popularized by the story of the same name written by Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1962. Singer's short story, and its subsequent adaptation into a film in 1983 starring Barbra Streisand, brought the name to a wider audience and contributed to its recognition beyond the Jewish community.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Yentl can be found in the 16th century, with Yentl ben Moshe Lipman Heller, a renowned Polish-Jewish rabbi and Talmudic scholar who lived from 1579 to 1654. Another notable figure with this name was Yentl Joskowitz, a Polish-Jewish playwright and poet who lived in the late 19th century.
In the early 20th century, Yentl Yoselovich, a prominent Yiddish actress and director, helped to further popularize the name through her performances and productions in the United States and Europe. She lived from 1887 to 1975.
Another significant figure with the name Yentl was Yentl Margulies, a Polish-Jewish writer and activist who fought for women's rights and education in the early 20th century. She lived from 1887 to 1952.
Yentl Katz, a Yiddish writer and journalist who lived from 1910 to 1985, also contributed to the literary and cultural legacy of the name through her works and advocacy for the preservation of Yiddish language and culture.
While the name Yentl has its roots in the Jewish tradition, it has gained wider recognition and popularity in recent decades, transcending its cultural and religious origins. However, it remains closely associated with its Yiddish heritage and the rich literary and cultural legacy of the Ashkenazi Jewish community.
People
Yentl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yentl as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yentl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yentl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 48 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yentl 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 7,140,715 US residents.
Is Yentl a common name?
We classify Yentl as "Very Rare". It ranks above 53.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 51 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yentl most popular?
The single biggest year for Yentl was 1985, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yentl is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Yentl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yentl a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yentl 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 Yentl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yentl 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 Yentl 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How common is the name Yentl?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.