Ayodele
Joy enters the home or world.
Name Census estimates that about 340 living Americans carry the first name Ayodele. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Ayodele today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ayodele births was 1988 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ayodele. 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 Ayodele with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
340
~ 1 in 1,008,101 Americans
Peak year
1988
20 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2022 SSA rank
#10,470
Tracked since 1971
Census
Ayodele in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 988 people with the first name Ayodele, which placed it at #12,555 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
#12,555
National first-name rank
People counted
988
988 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
93.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ayodele
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ayodele is Black at 93.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.4%) and White (1.6%). 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 Ayodele 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 Ayodele at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American93.6% · 925
- Two or more races3.4% · 34
- White1.6% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Ayodele
Ayodele is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 354 total registrations, 256 (72.3%) were male and 98 (27.7%) were female.
Ayodele as a male name
- Ranked #11,016 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1988 (14 births)
Ayodele as a female name
- Ranked #10,470 in 1999
- 8 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1971 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ayodele on both sides of the split. Of the 989 people counted with this name, 678 were male (68.6%) and 311 were female (31.4%).
Popularity
Ayodele: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ayodele from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 103 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
Ayodele 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 Ayodele during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ayodeles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ayodele
The name Ayodele originates from the Yoruba language, spoken by the Yoruba people of West Africa, primarily in Nigeria. It is a compound name formed by combining the words "ayo" meaning "joy" or "happiness" and "dele" meaning "to arrive" or "to meet." Therefore, the name Ayodele translates to "joy has arrived" or "joy has met me."
The Yoruba people have a rich cultural heritage that dates back centuries, and their naming traditions are deeply rooted in their beliefs and values. Names often carry significant meanings and are chosen with great care, reflecting the hopes and aspirations of the parents for their child.
While the exact origin of the name Ayodele is difficult to pinpoint, it is believed to have been in use among the Yoruba people for centuries. Some historical records suggest that the name may have been mentioned in ancient Yoruba oral traditions and folklore, reflecting the importance of joy and happiness in their cultural ethos.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ayodele can be found in the biographical accounts of Ayodele Alakija, a 19th-century Yoruba ruler and military leader from the Egba region of present-day Ogun State, Nigeria. He was known for his bravery and military exploits during the Yoruba civil wars of the 19th century.
Another notable figure with the name Ayodele is Ayodele Awojobi, a Nigerian politician and lawyer who served as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Osun State from 2003 to 2010. He played a significant role in the legal and judicial reforms during his tenure.
In the realm of sports, Ayodele Agunbiade is a former Nigerian football player who represented his country at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He had a successful career playing for various clubs in Nigeria and abroad.
Ayodele Adeleye is a contemporary Nigerian writer and poet, known for her works exploring themes of identity, culture, and the African diaspora experience. Her poetry collections have received critical acclaim and various literary awards.
Lastly, Ayodele Bamgbose is a Nigerian-American engineer and academic, who has made significant contributions to the field of signal processing and communications theory. He has held faculty positions at prestigious universities and has authored numerous research papers and books.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have borne the name Ayodele throughout history, reflecting its enduring cultural significance and the diverse paths taken by those who carry this name.
People
Ayodele + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ayodele 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
Ayodele: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ayodele?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 340 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ayodele 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 1,008,101 US residents.
Is Ayodele a common name?
We classify Ayodele as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 354 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ayodele most popular?
The single biggest year for Ayodele was 1988, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ayodele is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ayodele in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 988 people with the name Ayodele, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,555 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 Ayodele 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 Ayodele?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ayodele on both sides of the split. Of the 989 people counted with this name, 678 were male (68.6%) and 311 were female (31.4%). 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 Ayodele?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ayodele is Black at 93.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.4%) and White (1.6%). 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 Ayodele most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ayodele in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.6% (925 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 Ayodele in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ayodele a male name?
Yes, 72.3% of people registered as Ayodele in the SSA data are male. 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 Ayodele still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ayodele 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 Ayodele 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 Ayodele?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Ayodele at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.