Tarrell
Masculine
Tarrell is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 788 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
Tarrell is recorded for boys and girls alike and has three plausible parents, none of them documented. Its first syllable is also an old English word for a sailor, arrived at by a route that is pure practicality.
How old is the name Tarrell?
Tarrell first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Tarrell alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 800 people named Tarrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tarrell most popular?
Tarrell peaked in 1987, reaching #1829 nationally. See the whole 1987 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Tarrell
Sailors waterproofed canvas with tar, and the tarred cloth was a tarpaulin, and a sailor who worked in it and smelled of it was a tarpaulin too, and then just a tar. Jack Tar became the standard English figure for a sailor in the same way that Tommy became the figure for a soldier: a nickname applied from outside that the men then adopted themselves. The same tar waterproofed their hats, their coats and sometimes their pigtails, which were tarred to keep them tidy. The word survives in the phrase and in a handful of songs, and almost nowhere else, because the material stopped being the defining thing about the job. Tarrell has no documented connection to it. But it is the kind of syllable that has done work elsewhere.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Terrell, Tyrell and Darrell have all been offered as sources, and the name may equally have been built from a free front syllable and a common ending. The record holds this spelling for both sexes and explains neither.
Pronouncing Tarrell
tuh-RELL
Two syllables with the weight on the second. TARE-ul, with the stress in front, is also heard.
Nicknames for Tarrell
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
- 1962
- Most boys named
- 198735 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1829reached in 1987
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%5 in 2024, from 5
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.
Tarrells among us
people named Tarrell 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
Tarrell 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
- The stress is usually unmistakable, so most people say it correctly on a first reading.
- Rell comes off the back of it as a short form without any work.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- Terrell and Tyrell are both commoner, so this version will be corrected regularly.
- No origin is documented, so the meaning question has three candidates and no answer.
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Tarrell
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Tarrells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Tarrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tarrell in 2025?
- Tarrell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Tarrell with classmates?
- Tarrell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tarrell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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