Burl
Masculine · “a knot in a tree”
Burl is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 7,181 boys against 19 girls since 1880.
A burl is the knot in a tree — the swollen growth on a trunk where the grain twists into a pattern, prized by furniture makers for exactly that reason. It is also an English surname and the front of Burleigh. As a first name it belongs to the American nineteenth century, when word names for sons were ordinary.
How old is the name Burl?
Burl was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Burl alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 2,200 people named Burl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Burl most popular?
Burl peaked in 1887, reaching #377 nationally. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Burl
American naming of the eighteen-hundreds took short English words and short surnames for sons with very little ceremony, and Burl belongs with Cole, Wade, Dell and Vern in that group. What distinguishes it is the wood: burl figure is one of the most valued patterns in cabinetmaking, produced by damage or stress in the tree, so the word names something beautiful that comes from something going wrong. Whether any family had that in mind is unknowable, and it is a good deal more interesting than most word names manage.
Meaningscholars disagree
a knot in a tree
The English word burl means a lump or knot in wood or cloth, from an Old French word for a tuft, and burled timber is the figured wood cut from such a growth. That is the word reading. The other road is the surname Burl or Burrell, from an Old French word for coarse reddish cloth, which named a maker or wearer of it. A third takes the name as a clipping of Burleigh, an English place name meaning a clearing by a fort. None is established.
Pronouncing Burl
BURL
BURL, one syllable, rhyming with curl. There is no other reading and no spelling question — four letters doing exactly what they look like they do.
Nicknames for Burl
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1922190 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #377reached in 1887
- Change vs 2018
- +16.7%7 in 2024, from 6
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.
Burls among us
people named Burl are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Burl sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- One syllable, four letters, and unambiguous in both spelling and sound.
- The word behind it names something real and specific rather than an abstraction.
- It goes to girls as well as boys, as short word-names generally do.
- It is very strongly associated with the oldest generations and reads as belonging to them.
- Burl, Earl and Pearl all rhyme and all belong to the same American period, so the name gets grouped with them.
- A single syllable against a single-syllable surname lands abruptly, and there is nothing in the name to soften it.
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Burl
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Burls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Burl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Burl in 2025?
- Burl is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Burl with classmates?
- Burl will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Brian#339 · Benjamin#11 · Brandon#261 · Bryan#336 · Bruce#536 · Billy#1068 · Bobby#1097 · Bradley#403
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Burl? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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