Cardell
Masculine · “Old English dell”
Cardell is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,371 boys against 23 girls since 1880.
English has more words for a valley than any language needs, and each came from a different conquest. Dale is Norse. Dene is Old English. Combe is Celtic. Glen and strath are Gaelic. Vale is French. Dell is Old English again, and it means a small one with trees in it.
How old is the name Cardell?
Cardell first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Cardell alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 1,900 people named Cardell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cardell most popular?
Cardell peaked in 1955, reaching #1181 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,729 places below that high. See the whole 1955 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dell to Cardell
The story of Cardell
The English landscape vocabulary is a stratigraphy of invasions. Combe and cwm are Brittonic, surviving in the west and in Devon names like Ilfracombe. Dene, hop and hollow are Old English, and so is dell, a small valley with trees. Dale is Old Norse dalr, which is why the dales are in the north and east where the Danes settled. Glen is Gaelic gleann and strath is srath, a wide valley, both Scottish. Vale and valley are Norman French. Bottom is English again and means the lowest ground, which is why so many English fields are called something Bottom without anyone smirking until recently. A speaker of modern English therefore has six or seven words for the same feature, each carrying the accent of whoever brought it, and the map shows exactly where each group settled.
Meaningscholars disagree
Old English dell, a small wooded valley
Cardell is generally an English surname, from a place name, with the second element dell, a small valley, from Old English. The first element is uncertain and has been explained from a personal name and from a word for a rock. An unrelated French surname Cardel, from carde, a teasel used in cloth-making, is also possible. The American peak is 1955.
How the name formed
- dell
- Cardell
Related forms: Cardel · Cardel
Pronouncing Cardell
kar-DEL
Two syllables, stress on the second. Some families stress the first. Cardell and Cardel are homophones.
Nicknames for Cardell
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 195540 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1181reached in 1955
- Change vs 2023
- −38.5%8 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.
Cardell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cardel in English — spelling variant
- Cardel in French — related form
Cardells among us
people named Cardell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Cardell
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 Merril test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cardell's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Merril climbed just as high around 1920, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Merril's path sketches the road Cardell is walking now.
Cardell 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
Cardell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cardell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Dell works as a short form and is a name in its own right.
- The stressed ending gives it a firm final beat.
- The second element has a clear documented meaning.
- The stress placement is ambiguous.
- The first element's meaning is not settled.
- The 1955 peak places it in the mid-century.
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Cardell
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cardells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Cardell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cardell in 2025?
- Cardell ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cardell?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Cardell — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cardell with classmates?
- Cardell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cardell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cardell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cardell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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