Jarrell
Uncommon name of English origin meaning "dweller at the mound".
Name Census estimates that about 3,648 living Americans carry the first name Jarrell. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Jarrell today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jarrell births was 1987 (178 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jarrell. 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 Jarrell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.6K
~ 1 in 93,957 Americans
Peak year
1987
178 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,759
Tracked since 1913
Census
Jarrell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,859 people with the first name Jarrell, which placed it at #5,819 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
#5,819
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,859 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
65.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jarrell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jarrell is Black at 65.3%. The next largest groups are White (22.2%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Jarrell 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 Jarrell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American65.3% · 1,866
- White22.2% · 636
- Two or more races5.4% · 153
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 121
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 37
Gender
Gender distribution for Jarrell
Out of the 4,233 babies given the name Jarrell since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Jarrell as a male name
- Ranked #4,759 in 2024
- 21 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1987 (172 births)
Jarrell as a female name
- Ranked #14,046 in 1991
- 5 female births in 1991
- Peak: 1987 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jarrell leans strongly male. 2,794 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 55 female bearers (1.9%).
Popularity
Jarrell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jarrell from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,050 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jarrell 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 Jarrell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jarrells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. Texas, Illinois, Florida recorded the most babies named Jarrell, while Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 71 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jarrell
The given name Jarrell is believed to have originated in England during the Middle Ages. It is thought to be derived from the Old English words "gearr" meaning "spear" and "hyll" meaning "hill". This suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived near a spear-shaped hill or was skilled in spear-throwing.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name dates back to the 13th century, when a man named Jarrell de Wyntoun was mentioned in a historical record from Yorkshire, England. In the 14th century, a monk named Jarrell of Canterbury was known for his scholarly writings on theology and philosophy.
During the Renaissance period, a notable figure bearing the name Jarrell was an English playwright and poet named Jarrell Massinger, who lived from 1583 to 1640. His works included tragedies such as "The Roman Actor" and "The Duke of Milan".
In the 18th century, Jarrell Vansittart, an English politician and diplomat, served as the Governor of Bengal from 1760 to 1764. He played a significant role in the expansion of British influence in India during the early years of the East India Company.
Another prominent individual with the name Jarrell was Jarrell Lowell, an American poet and critic who lived from 1917 to 1977. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1947 for his book "Lord Weary's Castle" and is widely regarded as one of the most influential American poets of the 20th century.
In more recent times, Jarrell Graham was an American basketball player who played for several NBA teams in the 1990s and early 2000s. He won an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
People
Jarrell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jarrell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jarrell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jarrell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,648 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jarrell 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 93,957 US residents.
Is Jarrell a common name?
We classify Jarrell as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,233 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jarrell most popular?
The single biggest year for Jarrell was 1987, when 178 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jarrell is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jarrell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,859 people with the name Jarrell, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,819 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 Jarrell 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 Jarrell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jarrell leans strongly male. 2,794 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 55 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Jarrell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jarrell is Black at 65.3%. The next largest groups are White (22.2%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Jarrell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jarrell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.3% (1,866 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 Jarrell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jarrell a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Jarrell 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 Jarrell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jarrell 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 Jarrell 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 Americans are named Jarrell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.