Jerrel
A masculine name of Scottish origin meaning "a fair lad".
Name Census estimates that about 1,704 living Americans carry the first name Jerrel. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Jerrel today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jerrel births was 1987 (58 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jerrel. 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 Jerrel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 201,147 Americans
Peak year
1987
58 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2022 SSA rank
#5,769
Tracked since 1915
Census
Jerrel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,525 people with the first name Jerrel, which placed it at #9,216 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
#9,216
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,525 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jerrel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerrel is White at 45.0%. The next largest groups are Black (43.0%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Jerrel 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 Jerrel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.0% · 686
- Black or African American43.0% · 655
- Two or more races4.0% · 61
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 54
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 51
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 18
Gender
Gender distribution for Jerrel
Jerrel leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 26 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jerrel as a male name
- Ranked #11,499 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1987 (58 births)
Jerrel as a female name
- Ranked #5,769 in 1951
- 5 female births in 1951
- Peak: 1935 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jerrel leans strongly male. 1,458 people counted with this name were male (95.6%), compared with 67 female bearers (4.4%).
Popularity
Jerrel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jerrel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 376 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jerrel 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 Jerrel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jerrels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Texas, Arkansas, New York recorded the most babies named Jerrel, while North Carolina, Mississippi, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 43 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jerrel
The given name Jerrel has its origins in the English language, first appearing in the late 19th century as a variant spelling of the more common name Jerrell. The name itself is believed to be a combination of the Middle English words "ger" meaning "spear" and "rel" derived from the Old French "raille" meaning "rail" or "bar."
Early records show the name Jerrel being used in various parts of the British Isles, including England, Scotland, and Ireland. One of the earliest documented instances of the name can be found in the 1881 British census, where a Jerrel Witherspoon is listed as residing in the county of Gloucestershire.
While the name does not appear to have any direct historical or religious references, there have been several notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Jerrel. One such figure was Jerrel Privert, a Haitian politician who served as the interim President of Haiti from 2016 to 2017.
Another notable Jerrel was Jerrel Wilson, an American football player who played as a defensive back for the Kansas City Chiefs in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1960s. He was born in 1938 and played for the Chiefs from 1963 to 1966.
In the field of literature, Jerrel Conner was an American author and poet who published several works in the late 20th century, including the poetry collection "Moments of Clarity" in 1994.
Jerrel Quebe was a professional American baseball player who played as an outfielder in the Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in 1911 and played in the MLB from 1935 to 1945.
Lastly, Jerrel Hancock was a British actor and playwright who gained recognition for his work in theater productions and television shows in the 1970s and 1980s. He was born in 1943 and had a successful career in the entertainment industry until his passing in 2007.
People
Jerrel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jerrel 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
Jerrel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jerrel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,704 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jerrel 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 201,147 US residents.
Is Jerrel a common name?
We classify Jerrel as "Rare". It ranks above 93% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,474 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jerrel most popular?
The single biggest year for Jerrel was 1987, when 58 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jerrel is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jerrel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,525 people with the name Jerrel, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,216 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 Jerrel 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 Jerrel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jerrel leans strongly male. 1,458 people counted with this name were male (95.6%), compared with 67 female bearers (4.4%). 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 Jerrel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerrel is White at 45.0%. The next largest groups are Black (43.0%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Jerrel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jerrel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.0% (686 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 Jerrel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jerrel a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Jerrel 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 Jerrel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jerrel 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 Jerrel 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 Jerrel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.