Idell
Feminine · “work”
Idell is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 3,425 girls against 38 boys since 1880.
Idell is Idella with the last letter taken off, and Idella is Ida with an ending put on. It belongs to a generation of American names built by adding and subtracting syllables from a short Germanic original, and it has a mountain somewhere behind it as well.
How old is the name Idell?
Idell was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Idell alive today was born around 1923, making them about 102 years old. About 600 people named Idell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Idell most popular?
Idell peaked in 1910, reaching #463 nationally. See the whole 1910 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ida to Idell
The story of Idell
There are two Mount Idas in Greek geography and both matter. The Cretan one is where Zeus was hidden as an infant from his father; the Trojan one is where the gods sat to watch the war, taking sides and interfering, and where Paris was asked to judge between three goddesses and started the whole thing. Nineteenth-century English readers met both constantly, and Ida entered use as a classical name. American families then did what they did: added -ella to make Idella, cut it back to Idell, and produced a name that is recorded for boys as well as girls because the ending had not yet settled on one side.
Meaningscholars disagree
work, labor
The Germanic root behind Ida is generally read as work or industry. A second line runs through the classical Mount Ida, and English families using the name in the nineteenth century were more likely to be thinking of the mountain than of any Germanic root.
How the name formed
- Ida
- Idella
- Idell
Pronouncing Idell
eye-DEL
Two syllables with the weight at the back. Some families front-weight it, EYE-del, following Ida, and both are heard.
Nicknames for Idell
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 girls named
- 1921125 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #463reached in 1910
- Change vs 1971
- 0.0%6 in 1981, 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.
Idells among us
people named Idell 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
Idell 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
- Both halves are readable, so the name is said correctly at first sight.
- Ida and Dell are ready short forms, each a standing name.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- Idell, Idella and Adell are close neighbors and will be written for you in turn.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well as girls in the United States.
- It reads clearly as a name of the nineteenth century.
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What they receive
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Idell
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Idells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Idell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Idell in 2025?
- Idell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Idell with classmates?
- Idell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More I names
The most-given names starting with I, all years combined.
Isabella#7 · Irene#651 · Ida#1120 · Isabel#176 · Isabelle#166 · Iris#61 · Ivy#39 · Irma#3167
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Idell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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