Powell
Masculine · “Welsh ap Hywel”
Powell is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,485 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
The p at the front of Powell is a fossilized word. Welsh formed patronymics with ap, son of, and when the phrase fused into a single surname the ap collapsed onto the following name: ap Hywel became Powell, ap Rhys became Price, ap Richard became Pritchard, ap Evan became Bevan, ap Owen became Bowen. A whole grammar survives as one consonant.
How old is the name Powell?
Powell first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Powell alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 700 people named Powell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Powell most popular?
Powell peaked in 1891, reaching #841 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 7,402 places below that high. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hywel to Powell
The story of Powell
Wales had no fixed surnames until the Tudor period, and even then they came slowly. A man was known as his father's son, so the same family produced a different surname every generation: Rhys ap Hywel's son was Dafydd ap Rhys and his son Ieuan ap Dafydd. English administration found this unmanageable and pressed for fixed names, and the result was that a great many Welsh families froze a patronymic at whatever point the record demanded one. That is why Welsh surnames are so few and so heavily repeated: Jones, Williams, Davies, Evans, Thomas, Roberts, Hughes and Powell between them cover an enormous share of the population, and each is simply somebody's father's name caught at the moment of standardization. Powell peaks in the American data in 1891.
Meaning
Welsh ap Hywel, son of Hywel
From Welsh ap, son of, and the personal name Hywel, usually read as eminent or conspicuous. Hywel Dda, Hywel the Good, was a tenth-century Welsh king remembered for codifying Welsh law. The fusion of ap with a following name beginning in a vowel or h produces the initial P; before a vowel the form ab produces B instead, which is why Bevan and Bowen have b and Powell and Price have p.
How the name formed
- Hywel
- ap Hywel
- Powell
Related forms: Hywel · Howell
Pronouncing Powell
POW-ul
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the first rhyming with cow. POH-ul, with a long o, is also heard and is the pronunciation some families use. The Welsh Hywel is HUH-wel, with the stress on the first syllable.
Nicknames for Powell
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 191828 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #841reached in 1891
- Change vs 2023
- −18.2%9 in 2025, from 11
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.
Powell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hywel in Welsh — related form
- Howell in English — related form
Powells among us
people named Powell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Powell
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Powell 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
Powell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Powell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is complete and documented, including the grammar behind the initial letter.
- It fits the American surname-as-first-name tradition.
- It is short and easy to spell.
- Two vowel readings of the first syllable circulate.
- It reads as a surname to most people.
- The name is closely tied to the late nineteenth century in American use.
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Powell
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Powells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Powell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Powell in 2025?
- Powell ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Powell?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Powell — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Powell with classmates?
- Powell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Powell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Powell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Powell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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