Joel
Feminine · “the Lord is God”
Joel is given to boys far more often — 279,655 boys against 2,595 girls since 1880. See Joel as a boy name
The book of Joel is short, strange and mostly about insects. A locust swarm has stripped the country bare, and the prophet describes it in detail before turning it into something larger. One passage from the end of it was quoted at Pentecost — your sons and your daughters shall prophesy — and became one of the most-repeated lines in the whole tradition.
How old is the name Joel?
Joel first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Joel alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 2,100 people named Joel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Joel most popular?
Joel peaked in 1966, reaching #1017 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,191 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yo'el to Joel
The story of Joel
Joel is one of the twelve minor prophets — minor meaning short, not unimportant — and his book runs to three chapters. The locust passage is one of the most vivid pieces of description in the Hebrew Bible, and the promise that follows it is what Peter reaches for in the book of Acts when he has to explain what is happening at Pentecost. The name entered English use with the Protestant enthusiasm for Hebrew names and became a standard American one in the twentieth century, holding steady rather than spiking.
Meaning
the Lord is God
From the Hebrew Yo'el, which places two names for God side by side: Yo, the short form of the divine name, and El, the older and wider Semitic word. It is a statement rather than a description, and it was a pointed one in a period when other gods were being offered.
How the name formed
- Yo'el
- Ioel
- Joel
Related forms: Yo'el · Joel · Joel · Joël · Joel
Pronouncing Joel
JOH-el
Two syllables, stress on the first, with both vowels sounded separately. Spanish says ho-EL with the weight at the back and the j as a throat sound; French writes a dieresis over the e to stop the two vowels merging, which is exactly the same problem solved differently.
Nicknames for Joel
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
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 196975 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1017reached in 1966
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2025, from 8
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.
Joel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yo'el in Hebrew — transliteration
- Joel in Spanish — same name
- Joel in Finnish — same name
- Joël in French — same name
- Joel in Portuguese — same name
Joels among us
people named Joel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Joel
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 Marcheta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Joel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marcheta climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcheta's path sketches the road Joel is walking now.
Joel 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
Joel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Joel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It works in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Finnish without changing a letter.
- The meaning is a complete sentence and takes four words to give.
- Four letters, two syllables, and no difficulty of spelling in any language.
- It has been steadily used for decades without ever becoming a fashion.
- Spanish and English say it very differently, which matters in a bilingual family.
- It is easily confused with Jo-El, Joe and Noel in speech.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy; the record's girls are few.
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What they receive
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Joel
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Joels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Joel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Joel in 2025?
- Joel ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Joel?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Joel — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Joel with classmates?
- Joel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Joel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Syniah#13208 · Sarra#13208 · Arrianna#13208 · Marry#13208 · Briyanna#13208 · Alexsandra#13208 · Fionna#13208 · Nadiah#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Joel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Joel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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