Angel
Masculine · “messenger”
Angel is given to both — 265,886 boys and 100,288 girls since 1880. See Angel as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Angel comes straight from the Greek word for a messenger, the word the ancient translators of the Hebrew scriptures reached for when they needed a name for the beings who carried God's word. It traveled into Latin, then into Spanish, where Ángel became one of the steadiest men's names in the language, and it has been at home on both sides of the Atlantic ever since. Two syllables, spelled the way it is said in English, and instantly readable in either language.
How old is the name Angel?
Angel first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Angel alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 256,000 people named Angel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Angel most popular?
Angel peaked in 2006, reaching #31 nationally. Today it ranks #67, 36 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Angel appears on these lists:
- Distinctly American names
- America's top 100 names right now
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- Two-syllable names, the American default
- Five-letter names, the comfortable middle
- all guides
Works in Spanish & Latino families too:
Where it comes from
From angelos to Angel
The story of Angel
The Greek angelos meant simply a messenger, someone sent with news, before the translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek used it for the winged messengers of God and fixed the sense we know now. Latin took it as angelus, and from there it passed into the Romance languages: Ángel in Spanish, Angelo in Italian, Ange in French, alongside Angelos in Greek and Angel in Bulgarian. In Spanish-speaking countries it has been a men's name for centuries, often paired as Miguel Ángel or José Ángel, and it arrived in the United States along those lines. English speakers also knew it as a given name from Thomas Hardy's late nineteenth-century novel, where Angel Clare is a young man.
Meaning
messenger
From Greek angelos, 'messenger', by way of Latin angelus. The religious sense — a divine messenger — grew out of that ordinary word.
How the name formed
- angelos
- angelus
- Ángel
- Angel
Related forms: Ángel · Angelo · Angelos · Ангел / Angel · Ange · Anghel
Pronouncing Angel
AYN-jul
In Spanish the accented Ángel is AHN-hel, with stress on the first syllable and an h-like g. Families who use both languages often use both pronunciations for the same child.
Nicknames for Angel
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 200711,376 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #31reached in 2006
- Change vs 2022
- −6.8%4,757 in 2025, from 5,105
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Angel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ángel in Spanish — spelling variant
- Angelo in Italian — related form
- Angelos in Greek — same name
- Ангел / Angel in Bulgarian — transliteration
- Ange in French — related form
- Anghel in Romanian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Angels among us
people named Angel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 359 born in 2025 was named Angel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Patrick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Angel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Patrick climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Patrick's path sketches the road Angel is walking now.
Angel sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Angel is headed
Angel should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Angel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Angel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in English and Spanish — one spelling, no translation needed, though the pronunciation shifts.
- The meaning is transparent to almost everyone, with no need to explain it.
- A long, unbroken record in American use rather than a recent arrival, and no sign of dropping away.
- Established short forms in both languages: Ange and Angie in English, Angelito and Lito in Spanish.
- Spelled the way English speakers already spell the ordinary word, so dictation is rarely a problem.
- Two live pronunciations, AYN-jul and AHN-hel, means some introductions will need a correction — and which one a stranger reaches for often depends on where you are.
- The word is also a common endearment in English, which can invite the obvious jokes at school and the obvious puns on greeting cards for life.
- This spelling goes overwhelmingly to boys in the United States, so a girl named Angel will meet paperwork and teachers that assume otherwise — worth knowing, not worth fearing.
- There is a decision to make about the accent: Ángel is the Spanish form, but accents get dropped by forms, systems and spellcheckers, so the name will likely appear both ways over a lifetime.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Angel to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Angel
Masculine · #67 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Angels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 256,000 people named Angel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Angel in 2025?
- Angel ranks #67 among US boy names in 2025, with 4,757 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Angel?
- About 1 in every 359 US boys born in 2025 was named Angel — 4,757 in all.
- Will my child share the name Angel with classmates?
- Angel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Angel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christopher#68 · Joshua#66 · Lincoln#69 · Nolan#65 · Brooks#64 · Jayden#70 · Nathan#63 · Silas#71
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Angel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Angel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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