Terell
Norman French name meaning "from the region of Toul".
Name Census estimates that about 2,642 living Americans carry the first name Terell. It is a predominantly male name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Terell today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Terell births was 1994 (106 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Terell. 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 Terell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 129,733 Americans
Peak year
1994
106 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,183
Tracked since 1957
Census
Terell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,904 people with the first name Terell, which placed it at #7,824 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
#7,824
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,904 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Terell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Terell is Black at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and White (5.2%). 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 Terell 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 Terell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.2% · 1,604
- Two or more races5.7% · 109
- White5.2% · 99
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 62
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Terell
Terell leans heavily male at 98.6% of total registrations, but 38 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Terell as a male name
- Ranked #7,183 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (106 births)
Terell as a female name
- Ranked #10,301 in 1988
- 7 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1988 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Terell leans strongly male. 1,825 people counted with this name were male (96.1%), compared with 74 female bearers (3.9%).
Popularity
Terell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Terell from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 878 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Terell 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 Terell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Terells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. New York, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Terell, while Virginia, Missouri, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 57 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Terell
The name Terell has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "tir," which means "honor" or "glory." It is believed to have emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD, when Old English was the predominant language spoken in what is now England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Terell can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land and property commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, such as "Tirell" and "Tyrell," reflecting the fluid nature of spelling conventions during that era.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Terell. One of the most famous was Sir Walter Terell, a 13th-century English knight who fought in the Crusades and became a prominent figure during the reign of King Henry III (1216-1272). Another was Sir James Terell, a 15th-century English soldier and politician who served as a Member of Parliament and fought in the Wars of the Roses.
In the realm of literature, the name Terell appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's epic poem "The Canterbury Tales," written in the late 14th century. One of the characters, a yeoman, is referred to as "Terell the Yeoman."
Across the Atlantic, the name Terell also has a presence in early American history. One notable figure was Terell McIntyre, a Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia who fought alongside George Washington's Continental Army.
In more recent times, the name Terell gained popularity as a first name, particularly in the United States. One notable bearer of the name was Terell Stafford, an American jazz trumpet player and educator born in 1966, who has released numerous critically acclaimed albums and won several prestigious awards in the jazz world.
People
Terell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Terell 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
Terell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Terell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,642 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Terell 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 129,733 US residents.
Is Terell a common name?
We classify Terell as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,728 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Terell most popular?
The single biggest year for Terell was 1994, when 106 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Terell is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Terell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,904 people with the name Terell, or 0.63 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,824 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 Terell 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 Terell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Terell leans strongly male. 1,825 people counted with this name were male (96.1%), compared with 74 female bearers (3.9%). 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 Terell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Terell is Black at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and White (5.2%). 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 Terell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Terell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.2% (1,604 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 Terell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Terell a male name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Terell 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 Terell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Terell 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 Terell 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 common is the name Terell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.