Yechiel
Masculine · “may God live”
Yechiel is may God live — a Hebrew wish rather than a statement, and the name of a Levite musician in Chronicles.
How old is the name Yechiel?
Yechiel first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Yechiel alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 1,900 people named Yechiel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yechiel most popular?
Yechiel peaked in 2014, reaching #1884 nationally. Today it ranks #1906, 22 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From yechi El to Yechiel
The story of Yechiel
Yehiel appears several times in Chronicles, including among the Levites David appointed to the temple music. The name stayed in continuous Jewish use, and Yechiel Michel was a common Ashkenazi double name. It remains standard in Orthodox and Hasidic communities and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
may God live
From the Hebrew Yechi'el — yechi, 'may he live', and El, 'God'. It is grammatically a wish, which is unusual: most Hebrew theophoric names are statements. Yehiel is named in Chronicles among the Levites appointed to music. The Hebrew is ordinary and undisputed.
How the name formed
- yechi El
- Yechi'el
- Yechiel
Related forms: יחיאל · Jehiel · Yechiel
Pronouncing Yechiel
yeh-KHEE-el
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The ch is a throat sound English does not have; Hebrew stresses the final syllable.
Nicknames for Yechiel
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
- 1959
- Most boys named
- 202582 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1884reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +1.2%82 in 2025, from 81
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.
Yechiel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יחיאל in Hebrew — transliteration
- Jehiel in English — spelling variant
- Yechiel in Yiddish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey.
Yechiels among us
people named Yechiel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 20,830 born in 2025 was named Yechiel
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 Moishe test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yechiel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Moishe climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Moishe's path sketches the road Yechiel is walking now.
Yechiel 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 Yechiel is headed
Yechiel looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% 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.
Yechiel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yechiel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The grammatical form — a wish rather than a statement — is genuinely unusual.
- The meaning is transparent and undisputed.
- It records a living naming tradition rather than a revived one.
- The Hebrew ch has no English equivalent and will be lost.
- Three syllables and an unfamiliar spelling will need dictating.
- It is closely associated with one community's naming practice.
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What they receive
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Yechiel
Masculine · #1906 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yechiels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Yechiel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yechiel in 2025?
- Yechiel ranks #1906 among US boy names in 2025, with 82 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yechiel?
- About 1 in every 20,830 US boys born in 2025 was named Yechiel — 82 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yechiel with classmates?
- Yechiel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yechiel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cornelius#1906 · Huck#1906 · Tayden#1906 · Braxtyn#1906 · Clifton#1906 · Jeronimo#1906 · Neal#1906 · Linus#1906
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yechiel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yechiel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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