Ardell
A feminine name of English origin meaning "high point near the border".
Name Census estimates that about 1,516 living Americans carry the first name Ardell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 52.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Ardell today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ardell births was 1923 (151 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ardell. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Ardell sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • The typical person named Ardell is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Ardells were born before 1970.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 226,091 Americans
Peak year
1923
151 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2023 SSA rank
#9,739
Tracked since 1889
Census
Ardell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,751 people with the first name Ardell, which placed it at #8,310 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,310
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,751 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ardell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ardell is White at 61.6%. The next largest groups are Black (32.2%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ardell described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ardell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.6% · 1,078
- Black or African American32.2% · 563
- Two or more races2.1% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Ardell
Ardell is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 5,070 total registrations, 2,435 (48.0%) were male and 2,635 (52.0%) were female.
Ardell as a male name
- Ranked #12,380 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1930 (68 births)
Ardell as a female name
- Ranked #9,739 in 1977
- 5 female births in 1977
- Peak: 1922 (96 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ardell on both sides of the split. Of the 1,752 people counted with this name, 913 were male (52.1%) and 839 were female (47.9%).
Popularity
Ardell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ardell from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,312 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ardell by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ardell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ardells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota recorded the most babies named Ardell, while Virginia, Utah, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 55 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ardell
The name Ardell is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "ard" meaning "point" or "promontory" and "dell" meaning "valley." It was originally a surname, referring to someone who lived in a small valley or near a promontory.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Ardell dates back to the 13th century, appearing in the Domesday Book, a historical record commissioned by King William the Conqueror in 1086. The name was likely used as a locational surname, referring to a person's place of origin or residence.
In the 16th century, the name Ardell gained popularity as a given name, particularly among the English nobility. One notable bearer of the name was Sir Ardell Wentworth (1530-1596), a member of the English gentry and a prominent landowner in Yorkshire.
During the 17th century, the name Ardell was sometimes associated with the Puritans, a Protestant religious group that sought to purify the Church of England. Some Puritan families may have chosen the name for its biblical connotations, as it resembled the name "Ardelia," which is derived from the Greek word "ardelos," meaning "fertile plain."
In the 18th century, the name Ardell gained popularity in the American colonies. One notable bearer was Ardell Braddock (1715-1781), a British soldier who served in the French and Indian War and was heavily involved in the Braddock Expedition, a failed attempt to capture Fort Duquesne (modern-day Pittsburgh) from the French in 1755.
Another notable bearer of the name Ardell was Ardell Goodwin (1785-1867), a prominent American businessman and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire from 1835 to 1837.
In the 19th century, the name Ardell was relatively uncommon, but it was still used in various parts of the English-speaking world. One notable bearer was Ardell Mott (1826-1899), an American businessman and philanthropist who founded the Mott Haven neighborhood in the Bronx, New York.
People
Ardell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ardell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ardell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ardell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,516 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ardell going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 226,091 US residents.
Is Ardell a common name?
We classify Ardell as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,070 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ardell most popular?
The single biggest year for Ardell was 1923, when 151 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ardell is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ardell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,751 people with the name Ardell, or 0.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,310 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ardell in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ardell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ardell on both sides of the split. Of the 1,752 people counted with this name, 913 were male (52.1%) and 839 were female (47.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ardell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ardell is White at 61.6%. The next largest groups are Black (32.2%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ardell most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ardell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.6% (1,078 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ardell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ardell a female name?
Yes, 52.0% of people registered as Ardell in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ardell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ardell in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ardell can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Ardell as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.