Fishel
A masculine Yiddish name derived from the German name Feisch.
Name Census estimates that about 276 living Americans carry the first name Fishel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fishel today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fishel births was 2018 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fishel. 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.
People living today
276
~ 1 in 1,241,864 Americans
Peak year
2018
20 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,557
Tracked since 1959
Census
Fishel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 233 people with the first name Fishel, which placed it at #34,862 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
#34,862
National first-name rank
People counted
233
233 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
98.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fishel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fishel is White at 98.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.3%) and Two or More Races (0.4%). 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 Fishel 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 Fishel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White98.3% · 229
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 3
- Two or more races0.4% · 1
Popularity
Fishel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fishel from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 107 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Fishel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fishel 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 Fishel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fishels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Fishel
Fishel is a masculine given name of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name Phishchol. It is a variant spelling of the more common Yiddish name Feivel or Feivish, which itself derives from the Hebrew name Pinchas.
The name Pinchas is found in the Hebrew Bible and is associated with the high priest Pinchas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron. The name is believed to have originated from the ancient Egyptian name Pi-Bast, meaning "the one of Bast," referring to the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fishel can be found in the 16th century, with Rabbi Fishel Kracauer, a prominent Jewish scholar and author who lived in Krakow, Poland, from around 1515 to 1598.
In the 18th century, Fishel Hirsch Kalischer, a prominent rabbi and one of the founders of the Zionist movement, was born in 1795 in Lissa, Prussia (now Poland). He played a significant role in promoting the idea of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.
Another notable figure with the name Fishel was Fishel Hershkowitz, a Hasidic rabbi and author who lived in the 19th century. He was born in Berdychiv, Ukraine, in 1820 and is known for his influential works on Hasidic thought and philosophy.
In the 20th century, Fishel Schneersohn, a prominent Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and scholar, was born in 1887 in Lubavitch, Russia (now Belarus). He was a prolific author and played a significant role in the dissemination of Chabad Hasidism.
Fishel Litvinov, a Russian-born Israeli actor and comedian, was born in 1923 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia). He was known for his roles in numerous Israeli films and television shows, and was a beloved figure in Israeli popular culture.
While Fishel is a relatively uncommon name today, it remains a part of the Jewish cultural heritage and continues to be used as a given name in some communities, particularly among those with Eastern European Jewish roots.
People
Fishel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fishel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Fishel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fishel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 276 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fishel 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 1,241,864 US residents.
Is Fishel a common name?
We classify Fishel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 280 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fishel most popular?
The single biggest year for Fishel was 2018, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fishel is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Fishel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 233 people with the name Fishel, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,862 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 Fishel 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 Fishel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fishel appears almost entirely male. Of the 228 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Fishel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fishel is White at 98.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.3%) and Two or More Races (0.4%). 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 Fishel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Fishel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.3% (229 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 Fishel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Fishel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fishel 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 Fishel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fishel 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 Fishel 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 share the name Fishel?
Find out how many people share the name Fishel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.