Terell
Masculine · “one who pulls”
Terell is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,695 boys against 38 girls since 1880.
Terell is the plainest spelling of a name that usually carries more letters. Behind it is the Norman surname Tirel, and behind that a story English kings would rather have forgotten: a knight called Walter Tirel was hunting in the New Forest with William Rufus when an arrow killed the king, and Tirel rode for the coast and did not come back.
How old is the name Terell?
Terell first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Terell alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 2,600 people named Terell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Terell most popular?
Terell peaked in 1985, reaching #939 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,069 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Tirel to Terell
The story of Terell
Whether Walter Tirel shot the king by accident, by design, or at all was argued at the time and has been argued since; what is certain is that William's brother was crowned within days and that the Tirel family kept their lands in France. The surname came to England with the Normans and spread as Tyrrell, Tirrell and Terrell. Its American life as a first name belongs to the twentieth century, and the record shows a whole family of spellings — Terrell, Terrelle, Tyrell, Terell — each of which a family chose deliberately even though they all sound the same.
Meaningscholars disagree
one who pulls, or one who is stubborn
The Norman surname Tirel is usually read from an Old French verb meaning to pull or to draw, applied as a nickname — possibly to a stubborn person, possibly to an animal that would not be led. The reading is respectable but not certain. Some American Terells were built instead from Terry with an -ell ending, which carries no meaning at all.
How the name formed
- Tirel
- Tyrrell
- Terrell
- Terell
Related forms: Tirel
Pronouncing Terell
tuh-RELL
Two syllables with the stress at the back. Some families say TERR-ell with the weight in front, which is closer to the surname's older English saying; both are current.
Nicknames for Terell
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
- 1957
- Most boys named
- 1994107 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #939reached in 1985
- Change vs 2024
- −58.3%5 in 2025, from 12
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.
Terell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tirel in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida.
Terells among us
people named Terell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Terell
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Terell
- #12008
- Terell on the 2025 chart
- #810
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Terell went to 5 boys in 2025, but Terrell is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 118, which makes it the 810th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,198 places above the chart.
- Terrell113
- Terell5
About 1 boy in 14,475 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Terell itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Arlis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Terell's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Arlis climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Arlis's path sketches the road Terell is walking now.
Terell 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
Terell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Terell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is the shortest spelling of a sound usually written with more letters.
- Terry and Rell are both available and belong to completely different decades.
- It has a documented Norman surname behind it with a genuinely memorable story attached.
- Terrell is far commoner, and this spelling will be corrected toward it constantly.
- The stress is unsettled, so a child will hear the name two ways.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy, though -ell endings read as feminine to many American ears.
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Terell
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Terells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Terell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Terell?
- Terell is one of 2 recorded spellings. Terrell is the more common one — 113 births in 2025 against 5 for Terell.
- How popular is the name Terell in 2025?
- Terell ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Terell?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Terell — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Terell with classmates?
- Terell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Terell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Isrrael#12008 · Philipp#12008 · Steffen#12008 · Cezar#12008 · Johny#12008 · Sedric#12008 · Wil#12008 · Loyd#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Terell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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