Yael
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “Ibex”
Yael is given to both — 5,207 boys and 4,501 girls since 1880. See Yael as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Yael is one of the oldest names in continuous use anywhere: it stands in the Song of Deborah, among the earliest poetry in the Hebrew Bible, and it is still being given to babies now. Two syllables, five letters, the stress landing on the second beat — yah-EL — and no silent letters to argue about. It has been carried in Hebrew, sung in Greek and Latin translation, and it arrives in the United States along two quite different roads.
How old is the name Yael?
Yael first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Yael is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,200 people named Yael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yael most popular?
Yael peaked in 2023, reaching #775 nationally. Today it ranks #817, 42 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Yael appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Ya'el (Hebrew) to Yael
The story of Yael
The name is Hebrew, and its first bearer in the written record is Yael in the Book of Judges — the Kenite woman who kills the commander Sisera, and who is praised for it in the Song of Deborah, one of the oldest passages in the Bible. Greek translators of the Hebrew scriptures wrote her as Iael, Latin as Jahel, and English Bibles settled on Jael, which English-speaking Protestants used sparingly for daughters after the Reformation. In modern Israel, Yael became one of the standard girls' names of the Hebrew revival. Separately, and this is the road that matters most for a boy, Yael took hold across Spanish-speaking Latin America as a masculine name — which is why its American footprint sits heaviest in California, Texas and New York.
Meaning
Ibex — the wild mountain goat of the desert cliffs
The Hebrew noun ya'el names the sure-footed wild goat that lives on rock faces; the biblical text uses the same word for the animal. The image of high ground and climbing is built into it.
How the name formed
- Ya'elHebrew
- IaelGreek
- JahelLatin
- JaelEnglish
- Yael
Related forms: יָעֵל / Yael · Yael · Jael · Jaël · Jael · Iael
Pronouncing Yael
yah-EL
Two syllables, stress on the second. In Hebrew there is a slight catch between them, closer to yah-AYL. Expect some English speakers to try YALE or YAY-el on first sight; one correction usually fixes it.
Nicknames for Yael
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
- 1984
- Most boys named
- 2023329 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #775reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −5.0%304 in 2025, from 320
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.
Yael in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יָעֵל / Yael in Hebrew — transliteration
- Yael in Spanish — same name
- Jael in English (Bible) — spelling variant
- Jaël in French — spelling variant
- Jael in German — spelling variant
- Iael in Greek (Septuagint) — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Yaels among us
people named Yael are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,619 born in 2025 was named Yael
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 Tavon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yael's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tavon climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tavon's path sketches the road Yael is walking now.
Yael is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Yael is headed
Yael looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 24% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Yael beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yael in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and unambiguous once heard: five letters, no silent sounds, no competing spellings to choose between.
- Works in both English and Spanish without adjustment, and is instantly recognized in Hebrew — a genuinely cross-border name.
- A documented record stretching back to some of the oldest verse in the Hebrew Bible, unbroken in use since.
- Has real established short forms in Hebrew — Yaeli, Yali — rather than nicknames a family has to invent.
- Currently on a rising course in the US, so it is familiar to more people each year without being common anywhere.
- The gender split is the big one. In Israel and much of the Jewish world Yael is overwhelmingly a girls' name, and the biblical Yael was a woman. In Latin America it is given to boys. A son named Yael will meet both readings, sometimes in the same week.
- Rarity cuts both ways: he is unlikely to share it with a classmate, and he will also spend a lifetime spelling it out and correcting yay-EL or YALE at coffee counters and roll calls.
- Written records may throw up Jael, the older English spelling, in bibles and reference works — worth knowing so it is never a surprise.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Yael
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #817 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yaels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,200 people named Yael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yael in 2025?
- Yael ranks #817 among US boy names in 2025, with 304 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yael?
- About 1 in every 5,619 US boys born in 2025 was named Yael — 304 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yael with classmates?
- Yael will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yael
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jrue#817 · Ira#819 · Alberto#819 · Teddy#819 · Alfredo#819 · Dane#819 · Yahir#814 · Benedict#814
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yael? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yael and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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