Connell
Masculine · “strong as a wolf”
Connell is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,766 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Connell is an Irish name that has been a surname for so long that its life as a first name is easy to forget. Conall was a name of kings in early Ireland before O'Connell made it a family.
How old is the name Connell?
Connell first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Connell alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 1,400 people named Connell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Connell most popular?
Connell peaked in 1954, reaching #1333 nationally. Today it ranks #3128, 1,795 places below that high. See the whole 1954 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Conall to Connell
The story of Connell
Conall appears throughout early Irish literature and annals, borne by kings and by the heroes of the Ulster cycle, and it stayed in use for well over a thousand years. When Irish families' names were fixed in English, Ó Conaill became O'Connell and Connell, and the surname became far better known than the first name that made it. American usage now runs the other way again: the surname is being taken up in front, as Brennan, Donnelly and Sullivan have been.
Meaningscholars disagree
strong as a wolf
The usual reading takes the Old Irish elements for a hound or wolf and for valor. A second account reads the whole as high and mighty. Neither is settled, and the hound-or-wolf question in the first element is genuinely open.
How the name formed
- Conall
- Ó Conaill
- Connell
Related forms: Conall · Conall · O'Connell
Pronouncing Connell
KAH-nell
Two syllables. Irish speakers stress the first; American usage often stresses the second, kuh-NELL.
Nicknames for Connell
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 202142 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1333reached in 1954
- Change vs 2023
- +5.6%38 in 2025, from 36
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.
Connell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Conall in Irish — related form
- Conall in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- O'Connell in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Illinois.
Connells among us
people named Connell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 44,949 born in 2025 was named Connell
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 Waldon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Connell's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Waldon climbed just as high around 1922, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Waldon's path sketches the road Connell is walking now.
Connell 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 Connell is headed
Connell should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Connell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Connell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Genuinely old, with a documented record in Irish literature going back over a millennium.
- It sounds like the names around it — Connor, Donnell, Kendall — without being one of them.
- Conn is a short form with its own separate history.
- Connor is far more common and will be written and said for him by mistake.
- The stress is unsettled between the Irish and American readings.
- As a surname it is strongly attached to one nineteenth-century Irish political figure.
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What they receive
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Connell
Masculine · #3128 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Connells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Connell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Connell in 2025?
- Connell ranks #3128 among US boy names in 2025, with 38 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Connell?
- About 1 in every 44,949 US boys born in 2025 was named Connell — 38 in all.
- Will my child share the name Connell with classmates?
- Connell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Connell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hamilton#3128 · Juanpablo#3128 · Courtney#3128 · Baxter#3128 · Javen#3128 · Hal#3128 · Dawud#3128 · Tavion#3128
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Connell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Connell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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