Anjel
Masculine · “Greek angelos”
Anjel is given to both — 1,188 boys and 403 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Angel is two different names depending on the language you read it in. English says AIN-jul; Spanish says AHN-hel. Both are correct, both are common in the United States, and a child called Angel will be called by the wrong one somewhere every week. Anjel is a respelling that picks the English reading and forces it.
How old is the name Anjel?
Anjel first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Anjel alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,200 people named Anjel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anjel most popular?
Anjel peaked in 2003, reaching #1764 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,479 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From angelos to Anjel
Our story of Anjel
Our reading is that Anjel is a bilingual disambiguation device, and that this is a real and underdescribed category of American respelling. Most respellings are about distinctiveness. This one is about arbitration. A family in a Spanish-speaking community whose child will be schooled in English has a genuine problem with Angel: the written form gives no guidance, and the child will spend a lifetime correcting one group or the other. Writing it Anjel settles the question in favor of English at the cost of looking unfamiliar in Spanish. The same instinct produces Anhel, which settles it the other way, and Jesus written Hesus, and Juan written Wan. These are not errors and they are not fashion. They are decisions about which language a name will be read in, made in advance by people who know both.
Meaning
Greek angelos, a messenger
From Greek angelos, a messenger, the word used in the Greek Bible to translate Hebrew malach and later narrowed to mean a heavenly being. Latin angelus gave Spanish Angel and English angel. The j spelling in Anjel represents the English pronunciation of the g in this position; Spanish g before e is a throat sound, which is why the two languages diverge so sharply on the same four letters. It peaks in 2003.
How the name formed
- angelos
- Angel
- Anjel
Related forms: Angel · Angel · Angelo
Pronouncing Anjel
AIN-jul
Two syllables, stress on the first. The j spelling fixes the English reading. The Spanish Angel is AHN-hel with the stress on the first syllable and a throat consonant in the middle, and the two pronunciations share almost nothing.
Nicknames for Anjel
Moderate
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
- 1954
- Most boys named
- 200368 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1764reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- −30.8%9 in 2025, from 13
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.
Anjel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Angel in Spanish — spelling variant
- Angel in English — spelling variant
- Angelo in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Anjels among us
people named Anjel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Anjel
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 Tarell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anjel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tarell climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tarell's path sketches the road Anjel is walking now.
Anjel 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
Anjel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anjel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling settles a pronunciation the standard form leaves open.
- The meaning is settled and universally understood.
- It is short and easy to say.
- Angel is the standard spelling in both languages.
- The respelling looks like an error to Spanish readers.
- In English the name is now given to girls as well.
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What they receive
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Anjel
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anjels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Anjel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Anjel in 2025?
- Anjel ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anjel?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Anjel — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anjel with classmates?
- Anjel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anjel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anjel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anjel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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