Jorel
Masculine · “Hebrew el”
Superman's father is Jor-El and Superman himself is Kal-El. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both sons of Jewish immigrants, gave the Kryptonians names ending in El, which is the Hebrew word for God and the ending of Michael, Gabriel, Daniel and Israel.
How old is the name Jorel?
Jorel first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Jorel alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,100 people named Jorel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jorel most popular?
Jorel peaked in 1985, reaching #1389 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,521 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From el to Jorel
The story of Jorel
Siegel and Shuster created Superman in Cleveland in the early 1930s and sold the character to Detective Comics in 1938. The Kryptonian names appeared soon after: Jor-El and Lara as the parents, Kal-El as the child's own name. The El ending is unmistakable to anyone who knows Hebrew, and the pattern of a child sent away from a destroyed world in a small vessel has obvious precedents, though the creators never confirmed any of it, and later writers have supplied the readings. What is documented is the name's own career. Jorel enters American records in small numbers from the 1970s, peaks in 1985, and belongs to a small class of names taken from comics rather than from books or film, alongside a handful of others that arrived the same way.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew el, God
Jorel comes from Jor-El, the name given to Superman's Kryptonian father in the comics from 1939 onward. The El element is the ordinary Hebrew word for God, the same ending as in Michael, Gabriel and Daniel; the Jor- half has no established source. Whether the choice was deliberate has been debated for decades and is not documented by the creators. The American peak is 1985.
How the name formed
- el
- Jor-El
- Jorel
Related forms: Jorell · Jorelle
Pronouncing Jorel
jor-EL
Two syllables, stress on the second. The hyphen in the comic-book form is dropped in the given name, which does not change the sound.
Nicknames for Jorel
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
- 1979
- Most boys named
- 198549 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1389reached in 1985
- Change vs 2024
- −50.0%8 in 2025, from 16
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.
Jorel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jorell in English — spelling variant
- Jorelle in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida.
Jorels among us
people named Jorel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Jorel
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 Noland test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jorel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Noland climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Noland's path sketches the road Jorel is walking now.
Jorel 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
Jorel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jorel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The stressed ending gives it a firm final beat.
- Five letters and two syllables, easy to say.
- The El ending is shared with several established names.
- It is closely identified with one fictional character.
- Jorell and Jorelle compete as spellings.
- The first element has no known meaning.
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Jorel
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jorels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Jorel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jorel in 2025?
- Jorel ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jorel?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Jorel — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jorel with classmates?
- Jorel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jorel
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 Jorel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jorel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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