Noel
Of French origin, meaning "Christmas" or "birthday of Christ".
Name Census estimates that about 53,852 living Americans carry the first name Noel. It sits at #434 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Noel today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Noel births was 2014 (1,107 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Noel. 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 Noel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
54K
~ 1 in 6,365 Americans
Peak year
2014
1,107 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#434
Tracked since 1880
Census
Noel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 61,697 people with the first name Noel, which placed it at #795 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
#795
National first-name rank
People counted
62K
61,697 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
20.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Noel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noel is Hispanic at 42.3%. The next largest groups are White (35.8%) and Black (9.8%). 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 Noel 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 Noel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.3% · 26,104
- White35.8% · 22,087
- Black or African American9.8% · 6,052
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.0% · 5,580
- Two or more races2.6% · 1,598
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 276
Gender
Gender distribution for Noel
Noel is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 66,576 total registrations, 51,456 (77.3%) were male and 15,120 (22.7%) were female.
Noel as a male name
- Ranked #434 in 2024
- 728 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (901 births)
Noel as a female name
- Ranked #1,490 in 2024
- 146 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1987 (336 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Noel on both sides of the split. Of the 61,698 people counted with this name, 48,936 were male (79.3%) and 12,762 were female (20.7%).
Popularity
Noel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Noel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 9,476 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Noel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Noel 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 Noel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Noels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Noel, while New Hampshire, Alaska, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,158 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Noel
The name Noel has its origins in the Latin word "natalis", which means "birth" or "birthday". It is derived from the phrase "dies natalis", meaning "birthday" or more specifically, the "birthday of Christ". The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages as a reference to Christmas.
In France, the name Noel became a common given name for boys, particularly among the French nobility and upper classes. It was often used as a name for children born around the Christmas season, as a way to honor the birth of Christ. The name eventually spread to other parts of Europe, including England and Spain.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Noel can be found in the 12th century, when a French nobleman named Noel de Montbard was mentioned in historical records. Another notable figure was the 13th-century French poet and trouvère, Noel de Fribois.
In the 16th century, Noel Brulart de Sillery, a French diplomat and statesman, played a significant role in the French court during the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII. He was born in 1577 and died in 1640.
During the 17th century, Noel Chabanel, a French Jesuit missionary, was known for his work among the Huron people in Canada. He was born in 1613 and was martyred in 1649 during a mission to the Iroquois.
In the 18th century, Noel Chomel, a French botanist and priest, made significant contributions to the study of plants. He was born in 1632 and died in 1712.
The name Noel has also been used as a middle name throughout history. One notable example is the American writer and journalist, Ernest Noel Munson, who lived from 1894 to 1965.
While the name Noel has its roots in the Christian tradition, it has transcended religious boundaries and has been adopted by people of various backgrounds and cultures. Its association with the joyous celebration of Christmas and the birth of Christ has contributed to its enduring popularity over the centuries.
People
Noel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Noel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Noel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Noel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 53,852 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Noel 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 6,365 US residents.
Is Noel a common name?
We classify Noel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 66,576 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Noel most popular?
The single biggest year for Noel was 2014, when 1,107 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Noel 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 Noel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 61,697 people with the name Noel, or 20.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #795 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 Noel 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 Noel?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Noel on both sides of the split. Of the 61,698 people counted with this name, 48,936 were male (79.3%) and 12,762 were female (20.7%). 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 Noel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noel is Hispanic at 42.3%. The next largest groups are White (35.8%) and Black (9.8%). 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 Noel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Noel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.3% (26,104 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 Noel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Noel a male name?
Yes, 77.3% of people registered as Noel 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 Noel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Noel 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 Noel 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 Noel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.