Jewell
A feminine name of English origin signifying something valuable or precious.
Name Census estimates that about 8,315 living Americans carry the first name Jewell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 86.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Jewell today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jewell births was 1920 (1,004 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jewell. 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 Jewell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.3K
~ 1 in 41,221 Americans
Peak year
1920
1,004 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,180
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jewell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,253 people with the first name Jewell, which placed it at #2,595 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
#2,595
National first-name rank
People counted
9.3K
9,253 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jewell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jewell is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Black (26.4%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Jewell 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 Jewell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.3% · 6,043
- Black or African American26.4% · 2,441
- Two or more races3.9% · 365
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 226
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 103
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 75
Gender
Gender distribution for Jewell
Jewell leans heavily female at 86.3% of total registrations, but 4,679 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jewell as a male name
- Ranked #11,530 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1923 (139 births)
Jewell as a female name
- Ranked #9,180 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (893 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jewell leans strongly female. 8,004 people counted with this name were female (86.5%), compared with 1,248 male bearers (13.5%).
Popularity
Jewell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jewell from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 8,799 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jewell 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 Jewell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jewells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Kentucky, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Jewell, while Idaho, Arizona, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 673 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jewell
The name Jewell is an English given name derived from the Old French word "juel" or "jouel", which means "jewel" or "gem". This word itself originated from the Latin word "jocale", meaning "plaything" or "toy". The name Jewell first emerged in medieval England, where it was initially used as a nickname for someone who was cherished or highly valued, like a precious jewel.
During the Middle Ages, the name Jewell appeared in various historical records and documents, often referring to individuals from noble or wealthy families. One of the earliest known bearers of this name was Jewell de Mohun, a 13th-century English noblewoman from the Mohun family of Somerset.
In the 16th century, the name Jewell gained popularity among the Puritans, who often chose biblical or virtue names for their children. The name Jewell was seen as a symbolic representation of purity, beauty, and value, reflecting the Puritan ideals of virtuous living.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Jewell was John Jewell (1522-1571), an influential English Protestant bishop and theologian during the Reformation. He was a renowned preacher and author, known for his defense of the Church of England and his opposition to Roman Catholicism.
Another prominent bearer of this name was Jewell Plummer Cobb (1924-2017), an African-American biologist, cancer researcher, and academic administrator. She was the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago and made significant contributions to the field of cancer biology.
In literature, the name Jewell was used by American writer Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) for one of the characters in her novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God". The character Jewell Taylor was depicted as a strong-willed and independent woman, reflecting the symbolism of the name.
Other notable individuals with the name Jewell include Jewell Jackson McCabe (1879-1939), an African-American journalist and activist who advocated for women's rights and civil rights, and Jewell Parker Rhodes (born 1954), an American novelist and writer of children's literature.
While the name Jewell has maintained a consistent presence throughout history, it has never been among the most popular given names. However, its association with beauty, value, and purity has endured, making it a timeless and meaningful choice for parents seeking a name with a rich historical and symbolic significance.
People
Jewell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jewell 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
Jewell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jewell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,315 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jewell 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 41,221 US residents.
Is Jewell a common name?
We classify Jewell as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 34,107 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jewell most popular?
The single biggest year for Jewell was 1920, when 1,004 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jewell is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jewell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,253 people with the name Jewell, or 3.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,595 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 Jewell 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 Jewell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jewell leans strongly female. 8,004 people counted with this name were female (86.5%), compared with 1,248 male bearers (13.5%). 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 Jewell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jewell is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Black (26.4%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Jewell most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jewell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.3% (6,043 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 Jewell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jewell a female name?
Yes, 86.3% of people registered as Jewell 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 Jewell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jewell 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 Jewell 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 Jewell?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Jewell at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.