Ariel
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "lion of God".
Name Census estimates that about 96,211 living Americans carry the first name Ariel. It sits at #299 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Ariel today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ariel births was 1991 (6,077 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ariel. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ariel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
96K
~ 1 in 3,563 Americans
Peak year
1991
6,077 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#299
Tracked since 1892
Census
Ariel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 87,269 people with the first name Ariel, which placed it at #608 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
#608
National first-name rank
People counted
87K
87,269 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
28.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
38.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ariel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ariel is Hispanic at 38.2%. The next largest groups are White (35.1%) and Black (16.6%). 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 Ariel 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 Ariel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino38.2% · 33,375
- White35.1% · 30,670
- Black or African American16.6% · 14,481
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.9% · 4,288
- Two or more races4.4% · 3,827
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 628
Gender
Gender distribution for Ariel
Ariel is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 99,253 total registrations, 21,430 (21.6%) were male and 77,823 (78.4%) were female.
Ariel as a male name
- Ranked #511 in 2024
- 595 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (666 births)
Ariel as a female name
- Ranked #299 in 2024
- 1,051 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (5,411 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ariel on both sides of the split. Of the 87,270 people counted with this name, 25,735 were male (29.5%) and 61,535 were female (70.5%).
Popularity
Ariel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ariel from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 32,804 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ariel 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 Ariel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ariels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Ariel, while Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,851 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ariel
The name Ariel has its origins in Hebrew, derived from the Biblical phrase "Ariel" which translates to "lion of God" or "lioness of God." The earliest known use of the name dates back to the 8th century BC, when it appears in the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible.
The name gained popularity during the Renaissance period, when it was associated with various literary works and characters. In 1609, the name was used by William Shakespeare for the spirit character Ariel in his play "The Tempest." This helped to solidify the name's association with air, lightness, and freedom.
In the 16th century, the Spanish poet Lope de Vega used the name for a character in his work "El Perseguido" (The Persecuted). The name also appears in the works of other notable authors such as Milton, Shelley, and Sylvia Plath.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Ariel was Ariel ben Levi, a 13th-century German Jewish philosopher and Talmudic scholar. Another notable bearer of the name was Ariel Durant (1898-1981), an American writer and philosopher who co-authored the influential work "The Story of Civilization" with her husband, Will Durant.
In the 20th century, the name gained further popularity with the release of the 1989 Disney animated film "The Little Mermaid," where the character Ariel was the main protagonist. This helped to cement the name's association with grace, beauty, and courage.
Other famous individuals named Ariel include Ariel Sharon (1928-2014), an Israeli military leader and former Prime Minister of Israel, and Ariel Pink (born 1978), an American singer-songwriter known for his experimental pop music.
Ariel Dorfman (born 1942) is a Chilean-American novelist, playwright, and human rights activist, while Ariel Camacho (1992-2015) was a Mexican singer and songwriter who popularized the genre of Sierreño music.
People
Ariel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ariel 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
Ariel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ariel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 96,211 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ariel 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 3,563 US residents.
Is Ariel a common name?
We classify Ariel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 99,253 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ariel most popular?
The single biggest year for Ariel was 1991, when 6,077 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ariel is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ariel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 87,269 people with the name Ariel, or 28.89 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #608 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 Ariel 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 Ariel?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ariel on both sides of the split. Of the 87,270 people counted with this name, 25,735 were male (29.5%) and 61,535 were female (70.5%). 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 Ariel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ariel is Hispanic at 38.2%. The next largest groups are White (35.1%) and Black (16.6%). 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 Ariel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Ariel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.2% (33,375 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 Ariel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ariel a female name?
Yes, 78.4% of people registered as Ariel 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 Ariel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ariel 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 Ariel 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 are named Ariel?
Find out how many people have the name Ariel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.