Burrell
Masculine · “coarse woolen cloth”
Burrell comes from a cloth. Burel was a coarse brown woolen fabric that poor people wore in medieval France and England, cheap, hard-wearing and unmistakable, and the surname began as a nickname for somebody who wore it or made it. The same cloth gave English one of its most consequential words, by way of the desk it was used to cover.
How old is the name Burrell?
Burrell first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Burrell alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 400 people named Burrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Burrell most popular?
Burrell peaked in 1899, reaching #661 nationally. See the whole 1899 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From An Old French word for a coarse brown cloth to Burrell
The story of Burrell
The cloth was used to cover writing tables, because it was cheap and hard-wearing and a bare board is unpleasant to write on. The French word for the covered table took the name of the cloth, then the word shifted from the table to the room the table was in, then from the room to the office that occupied the room, and then to the institution that the office belonged to. That is how a coarse brown fabric produced the word bureau and then, with a Greek suffix attached in the eighteen twenties by a French economist who meant it as an insult, bureaucracy. A word for the government of desks, descended from a word for the cloth on top of them, which was in turn a word for what the poor wore.
Meaning
coarse woolen cloth
From the Old French word for a rough brown fabric, applied as a nickname and then descending as a surname. The reading is documented. Nickname surnames of this kind are the oldest class of English family name and they describe an individual ancestor rather than anybody now carrying them, which is worth saying before anybody feels described.
How the name formed
- An Old French word for a coarse brown cloth
- A nickname and then a surname in France and England
- The same cloth giving French its word for a desk
- Burrell as an American first name in the nineteenth century
Pronouncing Burrell
bur-EL
Two syllables with the stress at the back in the older pronunciation, following the French ending. Many American families put it on the front instead, giving BUR-ul, and both are in genuine use.
Nicknames for Burrell
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192435 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #661reached in 1899
- Change vs 1992
- 0.0%6 in 2001, 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.
Burrells among us
people named Burrell 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
Burrell 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
- It is a genuine surname with a documented and rather unexpected history.
- Rell and Burr are two very different short forms and neither is crowded.
- The sound is straightforward and needs no coaching.
- It reads unambiguously as a surname, and people will assume it is one.
- The stress is unsettled between the front and the back.
- It is very firmly of the nineteenth century and has had no revival.
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Burrell
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Burrells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Burrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Burrell in 2025?
- Burrell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Burrell with classmates?
- Burrell 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 Burrell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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