Tell
Meaning "to narrate" or "to communicate", derived from the Old English word "tellan".
Name Census estimates that about 192 living Americans carry the first name Tell. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tell today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tell births was 1988 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tell. 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
192
~ 1 in 1,785,179 Americans
Peak year
1988
13 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,739
Tracked since 1982
Census
Tell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 257 people with the first name Tell, which placed it at #32,623 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
#32,623
National first-name rank
People counted
257
257 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tell is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (5.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (4.3%). 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 Tell 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 Tell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.3% · 214
- Black or African American5.4% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.3% · 11
- Two or more races3.5% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 2
Popularity
Tell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tell from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 60 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Tell remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tell 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 Tell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tell
The name Tell has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "tellan," which means "to count" or "to narrate." It was initially used as a surname for those who worked as accountants or storytellers. The earliest recorded instances of the name date back to the 12th century.
One of the most notable historical figures bearing the name Tell is William Tell, a legendary Swiss folk hero from the late 13th or early 14th century. According to the legend, he was an expert marksman who defied the Austrian bailiff Gessler by shooting an apple off his son's head with a crossbow. This act of defiance is said to have sparked the Swiss struggle for independence.
In the realm of literature, Tell appears as a character in Friedrich Schiller's play "Wilhelm Tell" (1804), which helped popularize the legend throughout Europe. The play was later adapted into an opera by Gioachino Rossini in 1829.
Another noteworthy individual named Tell was Thomas Tell, an English merchant and politician who lived from 1613 to 1669. He served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1663-1664 and was actively involved in the reconstruction efforts following the Great Fire of London in 1666.
In the field of art, Tell Hendrick (1616-1690) was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his still-life and genre paintings. His works often depicted scenes of everyday life and are considered valuable representations of 17th-century Dutch culture.
Moving to the 20th century, Tell Erthon (1874-1944) was a Norwegian painter and illustrator. He is particularly renowned for his illustrations of Norwegian folktales and his depictions of rural life in Norway.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have borne the name Tell throughout history. While the name may not be as common today, its roots in Old English and its association with legendary figures and skilled artisans have contributed to its enduring legacy.
People
Tell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 192 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tell 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 1,785,179 US residents.
Is Tell a common name?
We classify Tell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 196 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tell most popular?
The single biggest year for Tell was 1988, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tell is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 257 people with the name Tell, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,623 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 Tell 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 Tell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tell leans strongly male. 244 people counted with this name were male (94.2%), compared with 15 female bearers (5.8%). 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 Tell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tell is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (5.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (4.3%). 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 Tell most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.3% (214 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 Tell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tell a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tell 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 Tell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tell 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 Tell 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 Tell?
Want to know how many people share the name Tell? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.